Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A02681
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Fratres sobrii estote. I. Pet. 5. 8. Or, An admonition to the fryars of this Kingdome of Ireland to abandon such hereticall doctrines as they daylie publish to the corruption of our holy faith, the ruine of soules, and their owne damnation which sleepeth not, by Paul Harris priest.
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Harris, Paul, 1573-1635?
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1634
(1634)
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STC 12812; ESTC S116531
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69,749
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97
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Armachanus And so Imindefull of my duty obforvance unto the thay-re of slâ—â—â—â— am bold to speake â—nnco my Lord of such affay es us may concâ—â—â—â— the wâ—llâ—â—áre of soules the good of this Church of Ireland in which I now have almost lived for the space of these â—â—â—my yeares And the rather I hold my selfe bound so to 〈◊〉 foâ—â—â—at â—â—mnot ignoâ—anâ— but know right we blow your How living among so many protectors of R 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ders so muny Generals so many Patrons pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c agents for them scarce shall you heare a word of sincere truth without many glosses Commentaryes of most corrupt additions yea for one verity a masse of forged devised fables especially from these remote Regions as you call them in Rome Tramontane Provinces Yea such is the misery calamity of Princes great Personages as well Ecclesiasticall as Politick that seldome by the care doe they conceive that birth which with all their hearts they defire not to be vitall long-lived that is seldome hearing what they would not heare Such multitudes there are of parasites flatterers who suggest unto their sences nothing but what is rare glorious above measure gratefull who for to please they holde it but little inferiour to immortality Neverthelesse such hath beene my breeding and education from mine infancy which together with my yeares hath growne up with mee and is now confirmed in more then a declining age that I rather desire to live poore with the Philosopher and feed on coleworts in this my tubb then to act the flatterer with Aristippus and surfet on pleasures in the Court of Alexander And forsomuch as now for many yeares we have had your Ho. amost vigilant pastor a lover of truth I held it not so much to concerne my selfe as the whole Church of Ireland to intimate these no small or triviall matters unto you For as it is our parts to open if not the imperfections smaller excesses of our brethren which charity would rather have concealed then revealed yet certes so soule so into be rable so manifest adulterations of our holy faith we can not we ought not woe dare not smother which happily if wee should the very stones would cry rore them out in your eares So doubtlesse to you holy Father it belongs to apply holesome remedyes to these diseases to powre wine and oyle into these wounds to asswage the tempest of these raging Seas to chastice with your pastorall staffe these butting rammes which lead the following flocke astray unto hurtfull and uncouth pastures orif they contemne to heare your voyce to cut them off from the rest of the fold by the Ecclesiasticall Sword of your censures that the good bee not infected by the fellowship of the bad the sound by the diseased These things are expected by the Church of Ireland from so great a Pastor by him to be governed to be cherished to be defended to be enlarged And so the Prince of Pastors to his Vicar and to his flock on earth be ever propitious whose power over him and his writings is willingly acknowledged by PAVL HARRIS A FAMILIAR DISPVTATION WITH THE FRYARS PROPOVNDED BY THE AVTHOR CAP. I. AND thus gentle Friars having as you see made my moane to Pope Vrbanus 8 of your false and seditious doctrines the pillars of your pride and ambition and no small revenew unto your Garnells Cellars and Kinchins Give mee leave to ventilat and dispute the aforesaid cafe of the Habis Scaputar and Fast a little more familiarly with your selves as my equalls The end and butt I shoot at if God so blesse my endeavors is to undeceive such poore soules among us as hitherto have beene inveigled and besotted with these your dreames and pleasant fantasies since it is my part no lesse to consute orror then to teach true doctrine and to discover such false apostles as seeke to transtorme themselves into the Apostles of Christ And albeit some happily will hold it a labour needlâ—sse to oppose these sencelesse tenents which like unto ill plastred walls threatning their owner nine dan not long subsist yet others and peradventure with more reason will also judge my endeavours bootlesse and to no purpose for that in most mens opinions these doctrines are so fastned or rather as I may say so rivetted and wedged into the heads and hearts of the people as it may rather become the labour of the Apostie then any other Paul to dissolve and to remove the same according to that of divine Petrarch alte radicates errores nonfacile est extirpare De viâ—sol lib. 1. Errors deeply rooted are not easily pull'd up Forsomuch then as these supernaturall prerogatives ascribed unto the Hubit Seapular and Donna Luissa her fast are all of them built upon visions and revelations and we are taught by the holy Ghost from the mouth of the Apostle 2. Cor. 11. That Satan can transfigure himselfe into an Angell of light and therefore are admonished by the same Apostle not to be circumvented by him whose operation consisteth in all power and lying signes and wonders and in all sedmong of Iniquity I demaund then of you O Regulars and especially of you Gray Friars and Carmelites how you come to know that forsomuch as S. Fraugis and S. Simon Stec might as well as many other Saints have beene deluded and abused by Satan in this kind that not withstanding these revelations of theirs were heavenly and divine and for such to be taken and beleeved and not rather illusions of that enemie of mankind Cui mille sunt nomina wille nocendi artes Who hath a thousand names and meanes of deceiving For say that S. Francis and S. Simon Stec be canonized Saints yet not all that is written by them or of them is canonized truths And therefore as wicked men and women in the Scriptures have beene honoured with divine visions and revelations as Balaam Pharaoh Saul Nebuch aduczar Pelats wife and the Sybills so have many of Gods servants beene deceived by strong illusions to beleeve lyes Examples whereof we have store as well in the Dialogues of S. Gregory written above a thousand yeares agoe as in that more ancient legend of the holy men and Eremites of Palestina Egypt and Theâ—ais written by Palladius within the first foure hundred yeares after Christ to omit infinite others in historyes of later times Nay S. Francis himselfe seemes not to have beene priviledged in this kind I say from being abused with false revelations For as wee reade in the Chronicle of the Friar Minors He having under him a Vicar generall whose name was Helias It was revealed unto him by Almighty God that the aforesaid Friar should both dye out of the Order and be damned in respect whereof the holy Faaher S. Francis did ever after so dis affect the aforesaid Fryar that he could not endure to behold him Yet not many linesafter in the very same sap it is
reported how the same S. Francis had a revelation from heaven that the aforesaid Friar Helias should doe pennance for his sinnes and not be damned at all This shall you reade in the Chronicle of the Friar Minors tom 1. cap. 118. And such as will take paines to peruse S. Brigids revelations conserre them with our legends of Saints lives shall finde innumerable examples of like kind One Saint having a revelation directly contrary to what hath beene revealed unto another Notwithstanding that there is but one God one truth And we may be enduced or rather enforced to beleeve that these revelations visions and apparitions of S. Francis and Simon Stoc if any such were were meere satanicall illusions no divine revelations for that they promise that certitude and assurance of salvation in this life which is repugnant to sacred Writt the uniforme consent of the Primitive Fathers the uniforme consent of Generall Councells and the beliefe both of our holy Mother the Church and all her obedient children even unto these times as I have aboundantly proved in my Epistle to Pope Vrbanns and not necessary heere to be repeated againe And therefore I will conclude this first point with that of the Apostle Golat. 1. That if an Angell from heaven shall come and preach unto us contrary to what we have received Anathema sir But yet to give scope to a more full and ample discourse of this Argument let us admit for the present that S. Francis and Simon Stoc had received by divine revelation That whosoever shall dye in the habit of the one and the scapular of the other should undoubtedly be saved for it may not bee denyed but such certitude may be had by divine revelation Examples we have of the Scriptures of the two glorious Apostles S. Peter S. Paul of S. Mary Magdalen some others for the arme of our Lord is not shortned nor his power abridged Yet say I conformable to the doctrine of holy Church as afterward shall bee prooved that this can be no assurance or security unto others who are not partakers of the said visions and revelations to beleeve that doctrine because what is of divine authority unto one is but of humane and sallible authority unto another For say that Peter knoweth a thing to come by certaine divine revelation yet the same shall be to Patrick but onely a humane relation received from the lips of Peter a mortall man subject to error and mistaking to deceive and to be deceived and being but in via non in termine peccable in thought word and deed and therefore we see the Church whose wisdome is from the holy Ghost never to canonize any person though reputed never so holy while they are in the flesh and till such time as their sanctity be attested by signes and wonders from heaven As then S. Francis before his conversion was of life conversation like unto others of his rank quality not much scrupulous of the offence of God till he came unto the age of twenty five as may appeare both by the first words of his Testament Quia cùm essem in peccatis c. as also by his life written by Bonaveniure So albeit I confesse the a d and better part of his life after his conversion dedicating himselfe unto the service of God was as a threed more evenly ipun then the former yet not altogether without some knotes as may be knowne by his own confession when on a time so journing in the pallace of the Cardinall De S ta Cruce and in the night-time being beaten of the Devills he repayred in the morning to the presence of the aforesaid Cardinall to whom he related what he had endured and then added Men that know me not repute me as a Saint but behold how the devills who know me well doe handle and chastice me for my sinnes So he Chron fras minor toni I cap. 13. Out of all which I doe inferre that a vision or revclation is not therefore authenticall or to be believed because such a person who after â—is death was canonized for a Saint did in his life-time avouch the same either by word or writing because it is necessary for my pâ—ucent assent unto such visions or revelations that the same be canonized for supernaturall infallible truths which cannot be but by authority of holy Church which hath canonized for certaine and infallible verities no other mens workes sayings or writings then those of the Prophets and Apostles as that Angelical Doctor S. Thomas hath in these words Innititur fide nostra rev Lationi Apostolis prophetis factae qui canoricâ—s linos scripserunt non autem revelationi si qua fuit aliis doctoribus facta 1 2 q. 1.8 2 d. 2 dum Our faith is grounded upon revelation made unto the Apostles and Prophets who wrote the canonicall bookes not to revelation if any such was made to other Doctors For which doctrine he cites also S. Aug. in his Epistle unto S. Hierom Epist 14. in these words Solis enim scripturarum libris qui canonici appellaneny didici hune honorem deferre â—t unllum autherum corum in scribendo errasse aliquid firmissime credam Alios autem it a lego ut quantalibet fanctitato doctrinaque prepolleant non ideo verum putem quod ipsi it a senserunt vel scripserunt Onely to the books of Scripture which are called canonicall I have learned to give that honour that I most firmely believe that none of the Authors thereof have erred in writing but other writers I so read that with how great sanctity or learning so ever they doe excell I doe not therefore believe a thing to be true because they have so judged or so written So S. Aug. Now future glory in Heaven being a supernaturall object cannot by humane knowledge or morall certitude be assured unto us but either not all or by divine faith which though not cleare and evident yet excelleth in certitude and infallibility all scientificall knowledge whatsoever And this I say to answere those who happily in defence of their errors in the aforesaid revelations will say that albeit indeed they be not to be believed by a divine and a supernaturall faith yet may they be certaine unto us exáio tapite that is from some other topicall argument which in truth is as much as if they said nothing preaching an infallibility of the aforesaid visions and revelations then brought unto cheir justification they answere us with nothing but historicall legends and I pray God not rather fabulous and meere humane possibilityes When the poore soule in the meane time trusting unto habits and scapulats as Oracles of truth rockes of a sure foundation at the evening and perclose of life findes it selfe irreparably deceived in puncto descondit in infernum in a moment for misbeliefe siukes downe to hell whence neither the habit of S. Francis nor the scapular of the Carmelites nor the saturday