Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A63618
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A letter of enquiry to the reverend fathers of the Society of Jesus written in the person of a dissatisfied Roman Catholick.
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Taylor, James, fl. 1687-1689.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing T284; ESTC R10414
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40,744
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50
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A LETTER OF ENQUIRY TO The Reverend Fathers OF THE Society of Iesus Written in the Person of a Dissatisfied Roman Catholick Imprimatur Hen. Wharton Rmo in Christo P. ac D.D. Wilhelmo Archiep. Cant. a Sacris Domest Octob. 26. 1688. LONDON Printed for William Rogers at the Sun in Fleet-street and Samuel Smith at the Princes Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXIX Advertisement COuld I believe it fit to Lye for GOD or that Truth needed the service of Falshood I might have been tempted to imitate the Tricks and Deceiving Arts of the Romish Factors for in Charity we must suppose some of them at least to believe what they say to be Truth and that their Cause is that of GOD and boldly have sent this Letter abroad as really writ by a Romanist But as I am a Member of a Church whose Superstructures as well as her Foundation is the pure Truth and one that is resolv'd to follow Truth and Charity wherever they lead me so I should think that I deserv'd the severe punishment of being depriv'd of the happiness of her Communion if I endeavour'd to serve her Interests by any means so contrary to her Nature and Manner of dealing with Mankind But as 't is no improbable supposition that there should be some Dissatisfied or Doubting or Inquisitive Person in the Romish Communion so neither can it I hope be injurious or offensive to any openly to declare That I who make these Enquiries am a Layman of the Church of England and that I make them in the Person of a Roman Catholick is for no other reason but only to preserve a better Decorum and the more to affect the Persons for whose sake I chiefly Publish this Letter And with all the Charity and Good-will that one Christian owes to another I do humbly beseech every Roman Catholick that believes he has a Soul to be sav'd and values its Salvation above being of this or that Party or serving a Cause or the greatest worldly Interest seriously for once to suppose himself this Dissatisfied or Doubting or Inquiring Person and let him in the Name of GOD lay his Hand upon his Heart and consider whether these Enquiries are not pertinent and rational and if they be I beg him impartially and as he will answer it at the Great Day to weigh the Answers that may by his Party be return'd to them whether he be really and fully satisfied that they are just and rational I confess Dissatisfied Doubting and Inquisitive Persons cannot be so frequent in a Church where they are taught solely and blindly to rely upon their Pastors and Spiritual Guides and generally speaking do so as in a Church which gives a modest liberty of trying the Spirits and of examining and enquiring into the reason and truth of things But yet for all that my Conversation with Persons of that Communion is not so little as to suffer me to believe but that there are a great many whose Vnderstandings are not so muffled nor so far enslav'd but that sometimes they entertain serious Thoughts and take a free View of Religion and the nature of it and reflect with what artifice and fraud it is manag'd in the Church of Rome and that they do believe when they think soberly that the Reformation is not an effect of Pride or Folly or Worldly Interest as their crafty designing Priests would perswade them This granted me such Persons then may reasonably be presum'd that if either they would give themselves the trouble or durst to think it necessary thus to Address themselves to the Jesuits who have assum'd to themselves the Reputation of the best Spiritual Guides Reverend Fathers SINCE 't is thought by a great many that you are the only Oracles of Learning and Knowledge of any Order in our Church it will not be wondred at that I particularly Address this Letter of Enquiry to you Faith no more then Love can be forc'd they are both free Agents I am dissatisfied doubt and am at a stand about many Points in our Religion I have a just reverence for the Antiquity of our Church but yet I know Error is older than she and Truth than either of them I have no worldly Interest to serve by being of this or that Party or Church But if I had I hope I should prefer the Happiness of a Life that is Eternal before that of a short and uncertain stay here For this reason 't is possible I may want one great and moving Argument which at this Juncture especially many have for 't is not this World's Riches or Honours that I look after so that if I were even at Rome itself the great and splendid Allurements there would not operate upon me No Reverend Fathers 't is pure Truth and Holiness which I am in search of for I am strongly perswaded that without the possession of these it is a most unreasonable confidence for any Man to hope to see GOD who is Truth and Holiness itself and therefore their Contraries must needs be odious to his Divine Majesty In a word Reverend Fathers my whole Design here in this World is first to know God's Will and then to obey and please him that through the Merits of my dear Saviour I may be admitted into some degree of his Glories hereafter Now if you can remove my Doubts and satisfie me by a just Answer to every Enquiry in this my Letter I shall rejoyce to remain where I have been born and bred But if you cannot I hope I shall despise the hard and unjust Thoughts and Censures of Men and so far overcome the Power and Prejudices of Education and Custom as to search for and embrace Truth in what Communion soever I find her in spight of all temptations and hinderances Our Representer says That every Man must work out his own Salvation with fear and trembling if so Reverend Fathers you must pardon me if hereafter I take a more particular care of mine even to the forsaking of your Communion in case I cannot meet with satisfaction in it and by following the clear Commands of Holy Scripture the Dictates of right Reason and the assistances of the honest and knowing Guides of another Church But before I come to the main business of my Letter give me leave Reverend Fathers to acquaint you with the ground and occasion of it and that was my reading the English Translation of the Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent lately by some of our Church set out here For indeed till then and as I had not the perfect use of the Latin Tongue and always living in a blind and stupid obedience and reliance upon the honesty and learning of my Guides I was ignorant of many necessary things and thought our Church never had nor never could have any thing in her Doctrines Worship and Service either Idolatrous or Superstitious or that any of her Children ever was or ever could possibly be guilty of either or that any Errors or
little too big for a Creature to devise SECT III. Quere I. REverend Fathers as I am excessively dissatisfy'd in my Conscience about this Invocation of the Virgin Mary and other Saints so I cannot leave off making larger Enquiries into the matter my next therefore shall be Whether we Catholicks do not exceed the Bounds and Rules which the Catechism of the Council of Trent and other Books set out or allow'd by our Church does prescribe us about Praying to Saints c. Now I humbly conceive the Truth in this matter will be best discover'd First by seeing how far Authority says we may go and Secondly how far we do actually go in this Practice The Catechism p. 464. says We do not pray to GOD and to the Saints after the same manner To God we pray either to give us the good things we want or to deliver us from evil But to the Saints we pray because they are in favour with GOD to undertake our Patronage and to beg of GOD those things we want Hence we have two ways of Praying differing in the manner for we properly say to GOD Have mercy upon us hear us but to the Saints Pray for us and it adds That we must take heed that what is proper to GOD we give not to any besides him And the Bishop of Meaux who by some of us is thought to have given the true sence of our Church in the Advertisement of his Exposition p. 11. says That we pray to them with the same mind we pray to our Brethren who are upon Earth with us that is to pray with us and for us to our Common Master in the Name of our Common Mediator who is Jesus Christ. And in his Exposition Sect. 4. he says That the Church teaches us to pray to the Saints in the same Spirit of Charity and according to the same Order of Fraternal Society which moves us to demand assistance of our Brethren living upon Earth And our Representer p. 4 5. says That as almost every sick Man desires the Congregation to be his Mediators i. e. to be remembred in their Prayers so he desires the Blessed in Heaven to be his Mediators that is that they would pray to GOD for him And is not this Reverend Fathers and the utmost that by our Church we are allow'd to do Shall we now see whether neither many of our Pastors and Guides Teach nor our People and Church itself Practice a great deal more in their Devotions to the Saints and principally to the B. Virgin And will not this be best known by our Publick Offices and other allow'd Books of Devotion I begin then with the Offices of our Church which I hope will be allow'd of as an Authentick Proof for if they may not be admitted to prove our Worship and Practice I know not how it can be done but by being present with every individual Man when he is at his Prayers and Devotion which I humbly conceive is next to impossible In the Office then of St. Mar. ad Nives in the Second Day of the Octave of her Nativity my aforesaid Friend English'd to me this Expression out of the Lesson or Prayer to the B. Virgin O admit our Prayers within the Sanctuary of thy Audience And out of the Offic. Parv. B. Mariae this Prayer of our Church to her We fly unto thy Protection and Safe-guard O Holy Mother of GOD despise not our Prayers in our Necessities but always deliver us from all dangers O Glorious and B. Virgin. Likewise out of the Office B. M. in Sabbato c. and the Hymn which begins Ave Maris Stella this Prayer Hail Star of the World c. Loose the Bonds of guilty Sinners enlighten the eyes of the Blind drive away all Sins from us make us humble and chast and free from the Bonds of our Sins give us purity of Life and grant us a safe passage into the next World. And in the aforesaid Office Parv. B. M. this Prayer Protect us from the Enemy and receive us at the hour of Death Likewise out of the Brev. Rom. he English'd to me this Lesson or Prayer to the B. Virgin Accept that we offer give that we ask and pardon that we fear because thou art the Only hope of Sinners We hope for the pardon of our Sins by thee and in thee is the most blessed expectation of our Reward And in the proper Mass of her Seven Sorrows and the Solemn Hymn which begins Stabat Mater dolorosa this other strange Prayer Make our Hearts to burn with the Love of Christ Defend us in the Day of Judgment And grant that when our Souls depart from our Bodies they may go into the Glory of Paradice By my Friend's help I could have produced several other Prayers and Expressions to the B. V. and other Saints in as high strains as these but I suppose these may suffice for my purpose Let me now Reverend Fathers see what some of our eminent and allow'd of Writers and Guides teach our People I begin with Cardinal Bonaventure and who is also a Canoniz'd Saint Out of the Office he has compos'd call'd Coroná B. V. the Grown of the B. Virgin which is found in his Sixth Tome and the Edition of Rome 1588 my Friend English'd to me this Orizon O Empress and our most kind Lady by the Authority of a Mother Command thy most beloved Son our Lord Jesus Christ that he would vouchsafe to lift up our minds c. And in his 35 Psalm of his Lady's Psalter he hath these Words Incline the Countenance of GOD upon us Compel him to have Mercy upon us Sinners The next I shall produce is a Little Book which I have by me and which till of late that my Understanding is a little better inform'd I constantly us'd it is call'd The Psalter of the B. Virgin it was Compos'd first in French by a Father of your Society and after in the Year 1624 Translated into English and Printed with Allowance the Translator assures the Lady to whom he Dedicated it that it was well approv'd of by the better sort of Catholicks and was presented to one of the greatest Queens in Europe in the French Tongue In the First Petition there are these Expressions O Glorious Virgin grant me Grace that I may receive pardon for my Sins I have this only Refuge to cast myself under the Shadow of your Wings Give my Soul entrance into Paradice when it shall leave the Body And let all that is due unto me for my Sins be cancell'd by your Merits Let the greatness of your Mercy blot out the multitude of mine Offences supplying by your Merits what in Justice I dare not demand Turn not your Face away from me for I put my Trust in you I will humble my heart before you for I know that the Proud shall not be entertain'd near unto your Sacred Majesty In the Second Petition these As soon as you extend your Hand upon