Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A51738
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The considerations which oblig'd Peter Manby dean of London-dery, to embrace the Roman Catholic religion humbly dedicated to His Grace the Lord Primate of Ireland.
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Manby, Peter, d. 1697.
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1687
(1687)
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Wing M384; ESTC R7924
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16,848
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24
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unto them But another promise that he will do it without the Ministry of his Priests we read not of in the New Testament I pray the Reader to consider whether private Sinners in the Church of England do not offend God at a much cheaper rate then in the Church of Rome since in the Church of Rome they are bound to some Penance But in the Church of England they may Confess to their Ministers and do Penance if they will or if they will not they may let it alone If they cannot satisfie their own Consciences saith the Common-prayer let them come to me or some other Discreet and Learned Minister and open their Grief c. That Christians may receive the Communion of Christ's Body and Blood without a previous Confession and Absolution by a Priest was never heard of in the Catholique Church until the days of Henry the VIII The third difficulty was the Answer given by Protestants to that Question in the late Kings Papers Where is that one Holy Catholique and Apostolique Church which we do profess to believe in the two Creeds Was there any such Society as one Holy Catholick Church extant upon the face of the Earth when Cranmer began his Reformation And what Provinces of the Earth did this Church inhabit This is a plain Question and desires no Answer but of the ubi or place where to find it This Society if it be not an Idea Platonica must appear somewhere And when That is known the next doubt is Did Cranmer believe himself a Member of it and if so I would fain know who gave him Authority to Reform this one Holy Catholique and Apostolique Church To set up Altar against Altar c. If there were no such Church extant upon the face of the Earth as there must be none in case she were lapsed into Idolatry what became of our Saviours Prediction that the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against his Church I am told that Dr. S eet has answer'd these Questions by saying that the Church of Rome are Idolaiers and yet a true Church at the same time Which Answer I confess I do not understand For what agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols saith St. Paul and what concord hath Christ with Belial For ye are the Temple of the living God what communion hath light with darkness 2 Cor. 6.16 What Idolaters and yet a true Church 't is as much as to say they are in the way to Heaven and Hell at the same time But such Answers must the given when there are no better I confess I never read this Answer in him I only have it by Hear-say Surely to teach and practise Idolatry destroys the very Being of a Christian Church And it the Church of Rome be no Christian Church there is an end of the Episcopal Succession of the Church of England and consequently of the Church it self To conclude that which oblig'd me most of all to the Church of Rome was the perusal of her Books of Devotion such as Saint Francis Sales Bishop of Geneva his Introduction to a Devout Life Neirembergius of the difference betwixt Temporal and Eternal Lewis Gratensis of the Love of God. Kempis of the following of Christ c. Especially the Mass it self which I read without prejudice and compar'd the Spirit of Piety which I found there with the Spirit of Reformation Instead of Idolatry I found the most Elevated and Judicious Prayers to the Holy Trinity concluding in the Name or our Saviour Jesus Christ besides the daily Sacrifice offered up to Almighty God according to his own appointment Do this in remembrance of me All this I observ'd and then said within my self God forgive the wickedness of those people who quarrel at this and persecute it with so blind and furious an aversion So did the Jews Crucify our Saviour What fault can any ingenious Protestant find with This or any other Prayer of the Mass Suscipe sancte Pater omnipotentes aeterne Deus hanc immaculatam hostiam quam ego indignus famulus tuus offero tibi Deo meo vivo vero c. Accept O Holy Father Almighty and Eternal God this unspotted Sacrifice which I thy unworthy Servant offer unto thee my living and true God for my innumerable sins offences and negligences and for all here present as also for all Faithful Christians both living and dead that it may avail both Me and Them unto everlasting life Amen If this be the Mass who but a perverse ill-natur'd Phanatick can except against it As for the Confiteor said at the beginning of Mass the Reader shall find Protestants objecting nothing against it but what Presbyterians do against that Canticle in the Common-Prayer-Book called Benedicte omnia opera O Ananias Azarias and Misael Praise ye the Lord is aâ— rank Popery with the Presbyterians as any thing in the Mass or Litanies of our Lady For what 's that say they but to invocate dead men who don't hear us Thus they will interpret it in their own Sense and not in the Sense of the Church of England In a word I found the Church of England beholding to the Mass for the best Flowers in her Communion Service And since some Protestants will believe nothing but their Senses let them read it as I have done and believe their own eyes The objection of its being said in the Latin Tongue allows every man to hear it that understands Latin. And as for unlearned Catholicks if the Truth were known they understand as much or more of it than Illiterate Protestants do of the Common-Prayer What does the Protestant Multitude understand of the Predictions of Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel Daniel Zechariah read in their Churches by appointment of the Common-Prayer How many Expositions of the Mass are extant in Print by the commandment of the Church So that no man can be ignorant of it that desires to be inform'd How much more Universal and Vulgar is the Latin than the English Tongue Had not the Jewish Church being then the only true Church in the World almost all her Scriptures and publick Service for fourteen Generations that is to say from the Captivity of Babylon unto Christ in the old Hebrew A Language not then understood by the common People Did our Saviour or his Apostles ever reprehend the Jews for this or for not Translating their Scriptures into the vulgar Language If the Service of God must be said in the Maternal Language of every Nation where shall an English-man in France or Spain that understands not the Language go to serve God upon the Lord's Day This would destroy all community of Sacraments and Liturgy between the Members of the Catholick Church which being one Body or Society of men cannot be like the builders of Babel who would not understand one anothers Language Now I beseech you Brethren saith St. Paul by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no
Rome If any body should ask me what if the. Church be manifestly corrupted with Superstition and Idolatry In this case why may not able Men Preach without any Mission I must beg leave to ask him again what if the Church finds those Men of Abilities manifestly intoxicated with mistakes of Holy Scripture With a Spirit of perverseness and a desire of change Or perhaps an evil Eye at the Lands of the Church What is to be done in this case Let the Scripture he will say determine the business But the Scripture admits of various Interpretations and I would fain know what Rebel or Heretick shall ever be convicted that must be tryed by a Law whereof himself must be the Interpreter Well but Cranmer tho' he had no Mission to Reform was perhaps a Holy Man as for his Sanctity the Reader may be pleased to see him subscribing to a Letter in Foxes Acts and Monuments for Excluding his Lawful Sovereign the Princess Mary from Succession to the Crown And afterwards Recanting the Protestant Religion and relapsing into it again when he saw no hopes of a Reprieve The truth is when I reflect that Cromwel and He were the chief Engineers of the Reformation first to Divorce Henry VIII from his most Virtuous and Innocent Wife Queen Katherine then to Marry him to Anne Bolen and afterwards to dissolve that Marriage Then to destroy Religious Houses and hang up the poor Abbots disband four or five Sacraments set the People a madding after new Lights I cannot but look upon those two Politicians as the Ring-leaders of all that Confusion and Mischief which has since broke out upon the Stage of Great Britain So much for the former Answer that Cranmer and his Associates were sent and ordain'd by the Roman Pontifical to teach the People according to the Scriptures which they did according to their own Sense of the Scriptures If it be said that he Preach'd no new Doctrine nor Administred any new Sacraments but only the Primitive Doctrine and Sacraments of Jesus Christ according to the Sense of the Antient Fathers which is the second Answer I pray the Reader to remember that this was the very Answer of Luther Socinus Zuinglius Calvin and other Reformers I am not disputing what Doctrine he Preach'd but who sent him to Preach his Protestant Doctrine and Adminster his Protestant Sacraments 'T is not his Doctrine but Mission I am now enquiring after How shall they Preach except they be sent saith St. Paul. 'T is not a pretence of true Doctrine without External and Lawful Mission that makes a Man a Preacher of the Gospel The necessity of Mission appears from God's own word Jerem. 23. I have not sent these Prophets yet they ran I have not spoken to them yet they Prophesied vers 21. Therefore they shall not profit this People at all saith the Lord verse 32. There are but two sorts of Mission in Holy Scripture the one Ordinary the other Extraordinary The former is the License and Approbation of the Church in being The latter is the immediate Voice and Inspiration of God himself ever attested by Miracles Prediction of future and publick Events c. Now as for the first Preachers of Reformation some body must send them by an Ordinary or Extraordinary Commission or they must run on their own heads Fur latro est says St. Cyprian qui à nemine Missus nisi à seipso That is to say he enters not by the Dore as honest Men do but seeks Windows Corners or By-ways of his own as if the Divine Providence were wanting when necessity requires to send Preachers into the Church or to furnish them with sufficient Credentials so as to leave us without excuse Did not the Hand of God strike Vzzah with sudden death for presuming to put forth his hand un-commanded to support the Ark from falling 2 Sam. 6. And King Vzzah with a Leaprosy to the day of his death for Offering Incense which appertain'd to the Priests alone Are not these things Recorded for our instruction The not considering this matter hath brought a World of confusion upon these Kingdoms and till the people can be brought to understand it we are never like to see an end of our Religious Distractions For why may not I may a Presbyterian Minister say having the same Authority of Scripture as Cranmer pretended to Preach against the Superstition of Common-Prayer as well as He against the Idolatry of the Mass The second point wherein I was disatisfy'd was the want of Confession to a Priest I found Protestant Sermons had some Authority with the people but not much for lack of this Curb upon their Vices Catholicks commit sin 't is true but call themselves to an account for it by Confession and Submission to their Ghostly Fathers Protestants sin likewise without calling themselves to any such reckoning because they can make a shift without it I have divers times discoursed with Protestant Ministers and some Protestant Bishops about this matter I was sorry to find no Harmony in their Opinions Some said it was a thing allow'd by the Church of England as very expedient in some cases but no matter of necessity Others thought it but a Pick-Lock of secrets and a matter of ill consequence But when I urg'd that the Church of England seems to require it in her Offices for the Communion and Visitation of the Sick the reply was she does it with this Proviso If a man be troubled with any doubts or scruples Which reply did but add more to my dissatisfaction For thought I is Confession nothing else but to be resolv'd in our scruples and doubts I have sometimes wish'd her Exhortation before the Communion otherwise worded then saying If there be any of you which cannot quiet his own Conscience let him come to Me or some other Learned Minister of Gods Word and open his grief c. Which words seem to allow as much as that sinners may satisfy their own Consciences well enough without troubling themselves for the Absolution of a Priest although a Priest may be had In short I confess my dulness understands neither the Piety nor Policy of leaving off the practise of a thing so approv'd and frequented by all the Christian World except the people of our Islands and some few others that call themselves Reformed And that only for some Abuses which possibly may attend it By this means the Church of England appears to me to have lost that Interest in the Consciences of the People which both the Roman and Greek Priests are happy in at this day And what if some Catholicks are never the better for it What are many Protestants the better for all the Sermons they hear and Sacraments they receive If we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins saith St. John. Faithful and just to what Even to his own promise which he hath thrice repeated in the Gospel Whosoevers sins ye remit they are remitted