quamvis non habeat habitum pietatis 1. 2. q. 100. art 9. c. He is neither punished by God nor men as a transgressor of the Precept who paies his Parents due Honour though not out of a habit of piety Such Honour though it be no act of that Vertue Piety they call it from whence proceeds what we owe to Parents doth satisfie the Precept so that the person is free both from sin and the punishment Accordingly Soto (r) De nat grat lib. 1. c 22. p. 57. supra We are not commanded to pay what we owe out of the habit of Righteousness or liberality but only to pay it to the full By this one instance he would have us judge of all other Precepts concerning Vertues The habits i. e. the vertues need not be exercised let the thing be done and it is all the command of God requires though it be not done out of a vertuous principle nor be any act or exercise of it So Bellarmine (s) De grat liber arbitr l. 6. c. 7. p. 664. supra When God commands that we live righteously and soberly he commands not that we do this from a habit but only that we do it The external acts which Pious Sober and Righteous persons do are requisite but the exercise of any vertues therein whether they concern God others or our selves is not commanded (*) Per virtutem intel igimus habitum bonum Nav. c. 23. n. 1. The habit is that which they count the vertue since therefore they say that nothing need be done out of habit they thereby declare that no exercise of vertue is enjoyned nothing that we do need be the act or issue of a vertuous principle this will be but matter of Counsel and not under any obliging command Indeed they make the exercise of vertue universally needless since they declare it not requisite in all those cases where if in any at all it would be needful they find no necessity for it either in worship or common conversation all may be done very well without any act of grace or vertue They may pray effectually they may celebrate or hear Mass meritoriously and these are the sum of all their ordinary worship they may partake worthily of all their Sacraments they may obtain all the effects of Sacraments or Sacramentals these are evident by the premisses they may satisfie all the commands of God and peecepts of their Church so as to free both from sin and punishment in the judgment of Aquinas and his Followers yea they may merit too not only other things but grace and glory this is the point more stuck at than the rest but the (t) Non desint gravissimi authores qui sentiant omne opus bonum hominis justi habitu Charitatis praediti vitae aeternae meritorium esse Bellarm. de Justif l. 5. c. 15. p. 957. Ad meritum imperium charitatis non est necessarium proprie in rigore sufficit enim ut ab habente charitatem proficiscatur vid. Suar. tom 4. disp 37. Sect. 3. u. 3. gravest of their Authors maintain that it is sufficient for merit that a man be in the state of grace though he do not act it and this state consists but in that imaginary grace to which a Priest can help an impenitent Sinner It will be hard to divine for what ends the exercise of vertue can be by them counted needful since without it all the ends specified may be accomplished the chief not excepted However here 's enough to enter the exercise of vertue amongst mere Counsels If we should take into this account all these rules in Scripture the transgression of which is by their doctrine but Venial as Scotus Gabriel and others would have us Scotus Gabriel asserunt peccata mortalia esse contra praecepta venialia vero contra consilia Vasq in 1. 2. tom 1 disp 143. c. 4. n. 7. the number of Counsels would swell infinitely and all Conscience of the exercise of Vertue would be in a manner stifled under that notion but of Venials hereafter They have without this yet another expedient ready to do them universal and effectual service this way for by their principles any one may turn what divine precept soever pinches him into a Counsel and make no more Conscience of it if he have but some Doctors opinion for it ad praeceptum non teneris si te non teneri probabilis Doct. est sententia Medina Soto in Victorell ad Sa. v. dubium n. 2. Yea though he have but the opinion of some one Doctor that 's enough to secure him as Angelus Sylvest Navar Sairus Victorel ibid. in Jo. Sanc. d. 44. n. 61. and above 20. of their Authors conclude vid. infra So far is it from being the singular conceit of some Jesuites yea though that Doctor therein be opposed by all others idem ibid. after Lorca Villalobos and many more Not to be tedious where Christ intimates Math. 5. 19. that some of the commands are greater and some less the great commands some of their Writers will have to be Evangelical Counsels because they are better more meritorious and tend to greater perfection (u) Vid. Soto ibid. l. 3. c. 2. others will have the less commands to be but such Counsels because they are not necessary to be observed Now betwixt these two both the great commands and the less will be dissolved into Counsels and what then becomes of the exercise of Christian vertues If this be but matter of Counsel there is no necessity that any should trouble themselves about it For this is the difference saith Aquinas betwixt a Precept and a Counsel (x) Praeceptum importat necessitatem consilium autem in optione ponitur ejus cui datur 1. 2. q. 108. art 4. A Precept imports necessity Counsels are left to the free choyce of him to whom they are given So that he may mind or not mind them as he lists if he observe them not there is no fear of penalty either eternal or temporal (y) Consilium si non servetur nullam habet paenam De Monach. lib. 2. c. 7. There is no punishment saith Bellarmine if a Counsel be not observed (*) Operari vero contra consilium licet altissimum peccatum non est nullus enim Theologorum concedit fractionem consilij puniendum fore a Deo Jo Sanc. disp 7. n. 5. They all maintain this Not one of their Divines will yield that God may punish any one for acting against his Counsel though of the highest importance And no wonder for by their doctrine he no way sins mortally or venially that doth not observe it Though it may seem strange that it should be no sin to neglect Counsels given us from Heaven and not to follow the advice of the All-wise God yet it is past all doubt by their principles (z) Intermittere consilium nullum peccatum est Vega. de Justific l. 14.
make a shift without it if any one among all the Members have it but. And one act of it in a whole life may serve The ruder sort may be help'd to this act which will serve once for all by making the sign of the Cross as their grave Divines direct them Sect. 3. to page 119. CHAP. V. NO necessity of true Repentance for any sort of sins by their Doctrine Of original sin or the corruption of our natures no man can be obliged to Repent Sect. 1. to page 121. It is as needless for those many and divers of them horrid sins which they count venial What pretty expedients they have to expiate these without Repentance Sect. 2. to page 123. For mortal sins some teach there is no Divine command to Repent And so to live and dye impenitently will be no Transgression No need of it any way either as a duty injoyn'd or as a Medium Sect. 3. to page 125. Others who confess there is a command for it will not have it oblige any sinner presently No sin nor danger to defer Repentance Nor will they have it needful at such times and occasions which if any would be the necessary seasons for it Not at solemn times of Worship Not on days of fasting Not when visited with great calamities Not when sins are brought to their Remembrance Not when they address themselves to their Sacraments no not that of Penance Sect 4. 5. to page 131. No need to Repent till one be at the point of death Nor is it so needful then or any time before but something else may serve without it A Repentance without any sensible sorrow for or actual resolution against sin is sufficient Or a penitence merely natural may suffice Or a slight remorse in the lowest degree possible one act of it dispatch'd in an instant and never repeated will be enough Or if a man conceive that he truly repents though really he does not this may serve the turn Or if he know that he does not repent sufficiently yet if he signifie that he would grieve more and is sorry that he does not this will be effectual Or attrition with the Sacrament will unquestionably justifie him Attrition with them far distant from true Repentance Several sorts of it Any of them seem sufficient by the Council of Trent The general concurrence of their Divines for the sufficiency of Attrition yet the best sort of it confessed to be morally evil Sect. 6. 7. to page 144. When they have excluded true Repentance by Attrition they reduce Attrition to nothing yet will have it still sufficient The least servile dislike of sin in the lowest degree though it be gone in a moment though it be merely natural is enough Or if there be but a dislike that this dislike is wanting Or a willingness to have it in those who have it not Or a mans thinking probably that he hath it when he hath it not Or a willingness without it to receive the Sacrament will serve the turn Yea even without their Sacrament of Penance Attrition with the Eucharist or extreme unction or the Mass or without any Sacrament at all may procure pardon What ways Attrition may secure them when they cannot have a Priest or the Rites proper to Priests while they live or after they are dead without them Sect. 8. to page 148. This Doctrine which makes saving saith love to God and true Repentance needless is established by the Council of Trent Their Sacrament of Penance hath no ground in the Word of God And being taught to depend on it for pardon and to neglect the things of most necessary importance to salvation it proves a most damning Imposture Their Doctrine thus making Repentance needless plainly destroyes Christianity debauches the Lives and ruines the Souls of sinners And is one of the most pernicious Heresies that ever was broached Sect. 9. 10. 11. to page 152. CHAP VI. THeir Doctrine leaves no necessity of Holiness of life It is enough to denominate their universal Church holy if there be but one holy man in it One act of charity the least of all may make one a holy man Other Maxims of this tendency How they destroy the necessity of holy life by making it needless to exercise vertue and avoid sin Sect. 1. to page 154. How they make the exercise of Christian vertues unnecessary in general more particularly hope one of the three Divine vertues fares no better than faith and love They leave themselves no good ground of hope Their hope a Conjecture founded upon a delusion The precept for hope obliges not but in the more grievous assaults of despair So that not one of a Thousand in Popery need have any hope in God No not any since the command for it may be satisfied by other acts Sct. 2. 3. page 157. Their Doctrine leaves no room for no ground of Humility no sense of sinfulness weakness unworthiness 'T is pregnant with Pride and Arrogance Sect. 4. to page 159. Brotherly love unnecessary by their Doctrine No need of love to any unless in necessity Nor then though the necessity be extreme if we help them though not out of Christian love This extended not only to external but spiritual necessities If the acts whereby we should relieve their Souls be neglected it may pass for a small fault Those who have no Christian love if they believe they have it may be excused from sin No precept requires any special act of love to our Brethren No affirmative command for such love 'T is enough that we do nothing against them Sect. 5. to page 162. In destroying the necessity of those radical Graces instanced in before they root out the rest Particularly those that depend upon love to God viz. Delight in God desires to injoy him hatred of sin sorrow for it as an offence to God and filial fear By their common Doctrine there 's no special command for any fear of God So that the want of all fear of God filial or servile is no special sin Since they need not act out of love they exempt themselves from all acts truly Christian and any other Christianity than honest Heathenism All exercise of vertues opposite to acts accounted but venially evil is with them needless The monstrous consequences of this Sect. 6. 7. 8. to page 164. A special expedient whereby they make the exercise of Christian vertues unnecessary is their turning the commands of God into Counsels such as need not be observed Such they count many of those excellent rules in Christ's Sermon on the Mount These and many others specified More instances in vertues which concern our selves God and others in acts of temperance and contentment in acts of Religion and in acts of Righteousness and Mercy Also Mortification crucifying the World self-denyal taking up the Cross and all growth in grace is but matter of Counsel So is every degree of grace above the lowest of all Yea all commands for
consequendi praescribit pars 4. relect de paenit p. 871. for if the end of the precept be love saith Canus we are not forthwith bound to observe all the commands out of love The reason is premised for in the opinion of Aquinas and the most grave Authours we are not bound to observe the end or intention of the Law-giver i. e. of Christ but the means which the Law prescribes in order to it Soto discourseth this at large and concludes (l) Actus charitatis consideratur ut est universalis conditio modus omnium virtutum Modus talis cha itatis non cadit sub praecepto quod est dicere in hoc praecepto Honora patrem matrem non includitur ut sint parentes ex Dei charitate honorandi sed quod exhibeatur eis exterior reverentia De just jur l. 2. q. 3. art 10. p. 44. Love being considered as the universal condition and mode of acting all vertues and performing all obedience such a mode of acting out of love is not commanded as when we are enjoyned to honour Parents the precept binds us not to honour them out of love to God This he delivers as the Doctrine of Aquinas and finds but (m) Dionysius Cisterciensis one Doctor amongst them of opinion that we are bound to do all out of love to God but (n) Haec autem opinio non solum falsa verum errori quam proxima est Trid. Synodo Can. 7. adversus Lutheranos damnata nempe cuncta opera quae extra Dei gratiam fiunt esse peccata ibid. condemns this as false and very near the Lutheran error condemned by the Council of Trent because then all acts done without grace would be sins So we must believe if we will not venture to fall under the condemnation of their Council that it is no sin not to obey God out of love to him that all acts of vertue and obedience whatsoever may be performed without sin though they be done without love to God that any man Baptized may be saved though he never act out of love to God no not so much as once while he lives though he perform not one act of a true Christian while he is on earth He can never perish for want of love to God in any or all the acts of his life for he will never be damned but for sin and to act without love to God is no sin Thus their chief Doctors determine and this they must all do in conformity to the decrees of their infallible Council and be deluded infallibly in a matter of no less consequence than the way to Heaven believing that they may arrive there without acts of love filial obedience or ingenuous observance of God in any thing that he hath commanded without ever acting as and so without being at all true Christians Sect. 3. But though they do not transgress other commands when they observe them without Love yet they may violate that special command which requires inward acts of Love if at that time when this obligeth they do not act out of Love Some of them seem to say this and we shall see what they make of it in the next place The nature and proper issue of Love is its internal act when the heart being possessed with a principle of divine Love to God in Christ actually loves him above all If this actual Love the inward act of it be not necessary as there will be no need of the habit that being but in order to acts so there will be no place for the Imperate Acts for those who would have us sometimes observe other commands out of Love yet never think this requisite but when the precept obligeth us to actual Love (o) Neque hoc praeceptum universum obligat ad suum ipsius modum sed quando occurrit articulus interne diligendi Soto ibid. Tenemur secundum Bonaventur pro loco tempore quum viz. tenemur exire in actum charitatis Angeli sum v. voluntas n. 6. hoc si habemus Charitatem Si autem non habemus non tenemur ad hoc sed ad aequivalens quoniam tenemur facere quod in nobis est ut eam habeamus ibid. Now whether there be any command for this act of Love or whether it oblige or when they are not agreed only in the issue they conspire to make the Commandement of no effect Some of them determine that the command to Love God with all our mind is not obliging which is all one as if they should say there is no command for it at all thus Stapleton one of the greatest Divines amongst them in his time (p) Hoc praeceptum diligendi Deum ex tota mente doctrinale est non obligatorium De Justific l. 6. t. 10. The precept of loving God with all our mind is dectrinal and not binding To the same effect others conclude there is no special precept of Love to God So Joh. Samcius (q) Disp 1. n 21. There is no special command in the Law of God for this but general says he By which he would have us understand that there is no Precept in particular for loving God none besides those Commands that require other things which if they be done we are discharged from any act of Love or inward Affection to him Aquinas is vouched for this and much alledged out of him (r) 2. 2. q 44. art 1. ad 3. art 4. ad 2. art 6. ad 2. 484. art 3. ad 2. to shew he was of this perswasion If there be any special Precept for this affection to God it is that which requires us to Love him with all the heart and soul and strength But this as Cardinal Cajetan (s) Comment in Deut. 16. in Catherin adv Cajet p. 268. declares does not oblige to the love of Charity And Bannez (t) Sanctus ibid. teaches that for natural Love there is no special command and so amongst them they leave no such command for any sort of Love to God at all The command to God with all our hearts Maldonat (u) Respondâ—o illud non speciale sed generale praeceptum esse in Luc. 17. 10. Dr. Smith against Pet. Martyr so understands it And Sancta Clara quoting him approves it as being agreeable to the Sentiment of his great Master Scotus Probl. 12. p. 68. will have to be a general no special Precept Others of them confess there is a special command obliging us to Love God actually but they put such a construction upon it that it signifies little or nothing more than if there were no such thing They say it is requisite that we should Love God one time or other but what time this is needful you will never learn of them what period one fixeth another unfixeth and while they find no certain time for it in the end they leave no place for it They all agree in this that we are
11. 40. Lopez c. 41. p. 224. Si adest solum oportunitas manifestandi Divinam gloriam aedisicandi ecclesiam martyrium est supererogationis non necessitatis Angel sum v. charit n. 5. Sylvest sum v. Martyr Secundum Bonavent S. Thom. sum Rosel v. charitas n. 10. when it serves for nothing more than the glory of God and the advancing of the Faith and this according to the judgment of Aquinas If it be no more than an opportunity of manifesting the divine glory and edifying the Church it is a work of supererogation and of no necessity saith another f Math. 19. Omnis qui reliquerit Domum vel fratres c. Vide quam cuâ—ctis rebus eum denudet qui optaverit esse perfectus Soto ibid. art 2. p. 244. Religio nihil aliud significat quam quod Christus Evangelicum adolescentulum docuit Sivis perfectus esse vade vende c. Et sequere me Parting with other things for Christ is no more a duty to forsake Brethren or Sisters or Father or Mother or Wife or Children or Lands for Christ's sake Matth. 19. 29. is not a duty of any Christian but only such as profess perfection such forsaking all for Christ to follow him is more than needs it was so in (g) Et quod subinde Petrus subjunxit ecce nos reliquimus omnia secuti sumus te Ibid. art 3. the Apostles In short taking up the Cross is more than is commanded when it is joyn'd by Christ with self-denyal and following him as the best character of his Disciples Luk. 9. (h) De voto obedientiae intelligit Luc. 9. Si quis vult post me venire abneget semeipsum tollat crucem suam quotidie sequatur me Ibid. art 1. p. 243. vid. art 4. p. 247. They take it to be but matter of Counsel and so quit themselves of the full character of Christians at once If there be any vertue left requisite for the practice of a Christian which this Engine hath not yet demolished and brought to discretion by working it otherwise it will make clear work The least degree of vertue they say is all that is necessary (i) Bellarm. de paenit l. 2. c. 11. supra none can be assigned above the lowest in Faith Hope Love Repentance or other Vertues which is enjoyned Now that which is lowest of all is next to nothing and that which is no more can act no further so that all exercise of Vertue which their doctrine makes needful is either nothing or next to it All growth in grace with them is (k) Nisi forte in religioso qui tenetur habere propositum proficiendi quia nullibi est praeceptum ut istam curam habeamus sed consulitur tantum Sylvest v. peccat n. 4. c. needless for the first degree they attain is not only a sufficiency but all the perfection that is necessary (h) l Perfectio una necessaria ad esse altera necessaria ad bene esse quae consistit in consilijs Bellarm. de Monach l. 2. c. 12. p. 1158. what is more may be profitable but not simply needful The first and least degree of Vertue in every kind satisfies the precept and that being satisfied requires no more So all other degrees will be but under Counsel it will be no duty to look after more than the least nor will the grossest negligence as to endeavours for more be any sin And since encrease of Vertue is by the exercise of it where the increase is not necessary the exercise is needless Further no Act of Vertue in any degree is requisite but only in the article of necessity for then only affirmative precepts oblige at all other times they bind no more than mere Counsels nor than neither unless it can be known when this Article occurs and how shall it be known the Scriptures have not declared it they say nor Councels neither why they have a rule in the case (m) Quae indefinita relinquuntur a lege arbitrio boni viri sunt definienda Navar. Things not determined are left to the Arbitrement of an honest man so it is left to every mans will who can suppose himself honest if he never find time for any act of vertue he will not be obliged to any or if he will be so cautious to consult their Divines in the case some of them declare that such a vertuous Act is rarely needful nor can they certainly tell when others conclude there is no necessity of it all Now he may follow which please him best even those if he list which discharge him from all obligations to the acts in question and this he may do safely not only by their doctrine of probability but by the determination of their Oracle The Council of Trent will secure him though he never perform one act of Vertue all his life nor repent thereof at his death by a fine device which is neither Repentance nor a Vertue of which before Besides all acts which have more than moral goodness seem by their doctrine to be under Counsel and all acts supernatural and truly Christian more than needs They are not truly Christian unless they be done out of respect to God with an intent to please and honour him as the Apostle requires 1 Cor. 10. 30. But this rule as Soto tells us (n) Potest tamen accipi in sensu ut sit consilium hic videtur propinquior literae scilicet sive comeditis sive bibitis c. omnia actu referatis in Deum De nat grat l. 1. c. 23. p. 60. taken in that sense which is neerest to the letter that all be actually referred to God is but a Counsel But may not a vertual intent to glorifie God be necessary though an actual respect thereto be but advice No not that neither for without such a vertual reference the acts we speak of may be morally good as they say they were in those that knew not God and so no sin Now in any degree above this viz. wherein they are more than not sins or any thing better than meerly inculpable (o) Si addam alterum gradum viz. praeter eum quo non pecco eo modo facio actum supererogationis consilij De Monach. l. 2. c. 13. p. 1162. they are works of supererogation if their great Cardinal be not mistaken There is yet another Maxime pregnant for this purpose (p) Modus virtutis non cadit sub praecepto neque legis divinae neque legis humanae The mode of Vertue falls not under the Precept that is we are not enjoyn'd to act in a vertuous manner or as becomes vertuous persons viz. out of a vertuous habit or principle Aquinas who delivers and maintains this maxime explains it by this instance (q) Neque enim ab homine neque a Deo punitur tanquam praecepti transgressor qui debitum parentibus honorem impendit
is Spiritual and Divine quatenus est divinum as it is Divine and not otherwise not (q) Non prout est laboriosum vel molestum corpori aut delectationis ejus impeditivum 22 q. 35. art 2. because it is laborious or troublesome to the flesh or any impediment to its pleasures which are Aquinas words but under that formality in that it is divine (r) Navar. ibid. Sylvest ibid. as his followers understand it So that the greatest disaffection to spiritual things if it be because they are unsuitable to corrupt nature not agreeable to the flesh it 's ease and pleasure which is the common and ordinary cause of it if it be not on an account (s) Peccatom est valde grave generoque suo mortale cum deliberato advertente animo admittitur quod raro videtur contingere Navar. ibid that rarely falls out as they acknowledg and which a man can scarce ever deliberately be subject to it brings him not under this guilt So Cajetan tell us (t) Si vero de hoc ut sit civis sanctorum nomesticus Dei c. non tristatur secundum affectum sed secundum effectum quia parum de hujusmodi amicitiae bono curat negligens adipisci illum quia vacat delectabilibus humanis peccatum Acediae non incurrit Cajet sum v. Acedia if a man not as to his affection but in effect be grieved at this viz that he is to be a Citizen with the Saints and one of Gods family because he little cares for the happiness of this Divine friendship neglecting to attain it because he gives up himself to other delights he is not guilty of this sin Angelus that he may discover when this disaffection to Spiritual and Divine things is mortal and when Venial tells us that (u) Aut consistit in omissione eorum quae non sunt necessaria sic est veniale peccatum Sum. v. Acedia n. 1. Si omittit ea quae sunt de necessitate salutis peccat mortaliter si vero alias debita peccat venialâ—ter Cajetan sum v. Inconst when it consists in the omission of things not necessary to Salvation it is Venial that is it is little or no fault if all the duties of real worship all the acts of grace and Christian vertues are omitted for we cannot yet discern that they account any of these necessary to Salvation and by the premises it appears that they do not It is Venial says Sylvester (x) Est autem veniale quando homo quidem in operando attaediatur sed tamen ea ad quae tenetur non omittit Ibid. n. 2. when a man counts the doing of it grievous but yet omits not what he is bound to Angelus expresseth it more significantly by this it appears (y) Et ex hoc patet quid dicendum de eo qui attaediatus abhominatur divina spiritualia quia nisi sint necessaria ad salutem ea dimittat vel deliberate disponat dimittere non peccat mortaliter Sum. ibid. says he what is to be said of him who counts grievous and abominates Divine and Spiritual things since unless they be necessary to Salvation and he declines them or is deliberately disposed to decline them he sins not mortally So that Spiritual and Divine things all that they count not necessary that is all in a manner which is requisite for a Christian may be abhorred without any mortal guilt And herein the two sums agree well enough though they seem to be at some odds It is false (z) Falsum est quod dicta abominatio spiritualium semper sit peccatum mortale Sum. v. malitia says Sylvester not limitting it to things necessary that abominating of Spiricual things is always a mortal sin Accordingly he determines that (a) Rancor 1. displicentia hominum inducentium ad spiritualia est veniale v. Acedia n. 4. Neque mortaliter peccat qui fastidiam indignationem quandam aversionem concipit in eos qui spiritualiae consulunt ut in concionatores aut alios Bonacin 1. praeeept d. 3. q. 4. p. ult sect 1. n. 6. rancour against those who would induce us to Spiritual things that is would draw us to God or the things of God is a Venial fault It is no mortal sin say others to conceive an indignation and loathing of those who perswade to what is Spiritual so as not to indure to hear or see them whether Preachers or others We see by this as by other instances that sins so stated as they are scarce ever practicable they can be content to have them counted mortal but common provocations and such of which there is most danger must pass for Venials yea there are some amongst them who will have this capital crime though it have such a deadly aspect both in itself and in its effects to be no mortal sin Laisius Turrian ibid. sect 3. n. 2. SECT XIX ANger stands in their general account as another capital crime I have touch'd it before but here let us see how criminal they make it when in particulars they bring up their reckoning It is considered in respect of the mode or degree and the tendency or effects of it As to the degree of it how high soever it rise to what excess soever it transport one inwardly or outwardly (b) Attenditur orde rationis in ira ut scil motus irae non immoderate fervescat interius vel exterius qui ordo si praetermittatur non erit fine peccato sed non erit mortale ex genere suo sed possit esse mortale peccatum puta si ex vehementia irae excidat à dilectione Dei vel proximi Angel sum v. ira n. 1. Sylvest ibid. n. 4. Cajetan sum v. ira it is not in its own nature mortal unless it be so vehement as to bear down both love to God and man and leave the passionate person neither which yet it will not do though it sally out furiously into curses or blasphemies against God or man if this be but meerly Verbal as (c) Navat c. 23. n. 117. alii supra we saw before The tendency of it that which it leads to is revenge and as to that it will be Venial if the revenge be but little or it may be great when it can be taken legally or it may be great and illegal too if the passion he but quick and great enough The more excessive it is the more mischief it may do and be innocent if the passion (d) Passiones nisi ad deliberatum consensum vindictae inducant veniales sunt Cajetan v. rixa possit esse veniale propter imperfectionem actus quia praevenit deliberationem Sylv. v. ira n. 4. Angelus ibid. prevent deliberation when it comes and hinder it while it stays both it and the effects of it how horrid soever will be Venial So that if one be angry enough he may Blaspheme God renounce Christ
Pope money and this done through his Indulgence there may be no need to do any more The Conclusion BY the Premises it is manifest that Popery by its practical principles is destructive to Christanity and the souls of men As to Christianity whether we consider it in general as Religion or in its specialties as the best Religion it is both ways by the Popish-doctrine ruined This plucks up the Fundamentals of it and dissolves the whole structure and burys and confounds both the necessary materials and the peculiar excellencies thereof in its rubbish There can be no Religion in reality without real worship this being essential to it yet their doctrine declares it needless either for Clergy or People to be real worshippers of God being so far from ingaging them to be reverent or devout or sincere or affectionate towards God in Religious addresses that it will not have them obliged so much as actually to mind God when they pretend to worship him There needs not so much as one act of true and real worship to make them as Religious and as much Christians as is necessary by their Divinity So that Christianity as they form it is a Religion regardless of God even when if ever he should be most observed and honoured and thereby sunk lower then Heathenism and the notions of natural Religion retained by Infidels Further it discharges those acts and dutys of Christianity which are necessary and essential to it and allowes and incourages all that it forbids and condemns even what is most repugnant to and inconsistent with it It makes all Christian acts and dutys needless and all wickedness opposite thereto safe and practicable without fear of condemnation and there needs no more to ruine the Religion of Christ A great part of those dutys are by this doctrine mere matter of Counsel and thereby they are made no dutys all obligation to perform them being in that notion quite dissolved The remnant all conscience of which is not swallowed up in Counsels which they cannot but acknowledge to be dutys yet they will have them to be so but sometimes and that very rarely and when that is they cannot tell it is not certainly known when and the observance thereof must be correspondent no body knows certainly when Or if they guess at the time and point some out as probable yet when the time comes the acts though the life of Christianity consists therein and the salvation of the persons depends thereon need not to be done something else will serve instead thereof some natural act or faint wish or false conceit something or other though neither truly Christian nor Virtuous with the Sacrament at least will excuse them from all other Christian acts It is not the Accessaries of Religion only that they make thus bold with but thus they handle the very vitals of Christianity and make them unnecessary for Christians The very acts of Faith and Hope and Love yea Repentance it self and all the rest with these are thus made needless and they may be true Christians at their rate and saved in their conceit without ever exerting in a whole life so little as one act of grace or Christian vertue The world never saw Christianity into what hands soever it fell more clearly stript not only of its lustre and ornament but of its life and being If this suffice not to make an end of all Religion truly Christian they not only dismiss as more than needs what the doctrine of the Gospel makes most necessary but advance and incourage what is most opposite to it not only ignorance unbelief disaffection to Christ impenitency but therewith all disobedience unto the Gospel Instead of the holy rules thereof they have formed a doctrine of licentious Maxims which give security to the practice of any wickedness and take away when they had left no other restraint the fears of Hell from those who live and dye in damning sins Whatever it is that Christ forbids it is with them either no sin or not dangerous or the worst of all by vertue of some devices of their own not damning So that they may venture upon any wickedness freely and persist therein securely till death and yet by some evasions which they tell them of escape the wrath to come whatever Christ say to the contrary without either the fruits or acts of Repentance There are many sins and amongst them horrid and enormous crimes condemned by the Law of God and natural light and such as the practice of them is reproachful to the Christian name which yet with them pass for no sins and they are furnished with expedients to make any other so too when they see occasion and in these they will discern no shadow of danger There is a world of wickedness which by their doctrine is Venial abundance more than enough utterly to deface Christianity and to make any who takes but part of the liberty given by their Divines to look more like an Athiest or a Bruit a person of no Religion Conscience or Honesty than a true Christian They can gratifie any vicious disposition which way soever it leads with impiety and debauches enow to fill up a whole life and yet if he will be satisfied with any thing but the highest degrees of wickedness promise him security If he could swallow ten millions of their Venials every minute at a gulp they would not by their divinity indanger him though one that will follow the rules of Christ must choose death rather than venture upon some one of them There is with them no danger in thus sinning though the Christian doctrine never discovered any thing else in sin Or if their Catholicks will be outragiously wicked and cannot be satisfied with less than the practice of the most mortal crimes they will not disoblige them the party must be kept up though their souls sink they shall have their liberty upon easie terms deadly sins shall be as free for them and in a manner as safe as their harmless Venials That which makes Venial faults seem less dangerous than mortal is because they will not damne a man though he never repent of them but even herein they have made venial and mortal alike safe for by their doctrine he may he live in all sorts of deadly wickedness die therein without any act of true Repentance and yet escape damnation They commend to them several evasions to secure impenitent Sinners how damnable soever their neglects or practices have been to the last But that of the Trent Council must not be doubted of attrition which they confess alone to be no sufficient no saving Repentance with the Sacrament of confession will pass any Sinner into a saving state This one device of their own will serve instead of all that Christ hath prescribed if this be observed though they live and die in the neglect of all Christian vertues and in the practice of all wickedness which Christ condemns they need not fear this
good acts are no more than Counsels but only in the article of necessity And all acts that have more than moral goodness And all actings in a vertuous manner and from a good principle Exercise of vertue not necessary either in Worship or common conversation Not in those cases where if in any at all it would be needful A way they have for any man to turn whatever precept pinches him into a Counsel There is no danger nor any sin at all in rejecting the counsel of God No not when Conscience dictates that it is good to follow them No nor when God further calls thereto by inspirations or motions of his Spirit They may be neglected out of Contempt And with some abhorrence of them They may boast and glory in such neglects They may bind themselves by Oaths not to observe Gods Counsels Sect. 9. to page 181. No exercise of vertue necessary but only during the Pope's pleasure for if be should forbid vertue as he hath done already in diverse instances the Church would be bound to believe those vertues to be evils and so to avoid them Further their Doctrine incourages the continual practice of such wickedness as is inconsistent with all holiness of life reduced to three heads Sect. 10. to page 183. CHAP. VII MAny hainous crimes are vertues or necessary duties with them Their Blasphemies waved because insisted on by others Also a great part of their Idolatry Their Plea in excuse of this Crime from the distinction of terminative and transient worship removed by their own Doctrine formerly opened Sect. 1. to page 185. Their Idolatry as to Relicks These are to be Religiously worshipped though many of them be ridiculous and loathsome though many Thousands be confessed to be counterfeit and great and detestable impostures be therein acknowledged To worship false Relicks or the Devil upon a mistaken belief is meritorious What worshipful things miscarriages in the Mass furnish them with Sect. 2. to page 188. They give Divine worship to Relicks though they give it not the name They give both name and thing expresly to vast multitudes All which they count Relicks of Christare to have Christs honour Among these they reckon all thidgs that were near him or touched him on earth even the earth water stones c. Not only the things but persons that touched him thereby become his Relicks and are to have his worship The Virgin Mary expresly and Thousands more may have it by the same reason they will not absolutely except the Ass on which he rode Yea all the Relicks of such persons may have it For they commonly teach that the Relicks may have the same worship with the person whose they are The best of their Relicks impostures that which passes for the foreskin of Christ his Shirt Coat Blood the Crown of Thorns Launce Nails Cross and its Liquor Their Relicks numerous beyond account How they came to be so their own Authors tell us The Devil furnished their Church with some of them and crafty knaves with others Yet their whole Religion in a manner consists in worshipping such things as these as some of themselves tell us Sect. 3. to page 203. Perjury necessary by their Doctrine If a Prince swear solemnly not to prosecute his supposed heretical subjects unless he break his Oath he is in danger to be damned No faith to be kept with Hereticks Their Doctrine ruines all securities that Popish Princes or Subjects can give to Protestants These can with prudence trust to nothing but what will keep them out of the Papal reach Sect. 4. to page 205. Robhery and Murder as necessary a Duty To deprive Hereticks of Estate or life a meritorious act All Papists Princes or others are bound in Conscience by that which is most obliging in their Religion utterly to root out all they account Hereticks and to seize on all they have A decree of a general Council for it which incourages the execution with promises of the greatest rewards and enforces it with threatnings of most dreadful import They must not be counted Catholicks unless they do it It hath been effected or attempted in all Countreys where the Papists had power to do it or but thought that they had it The reason why they do it not in England and some other places is as themselves declare because they have not yet power enough Sect. 5. to page 210. Sorcery and Conjuration part of their Religion This manifested in their Sacramentals where by their own rules there is a tacit invocation of the Devil Their excuses here insufficient Even their mode of praying too like conjuring Sect. 6. to page 215. The chief act of their Religion is to destroy Christ by Sacrificing him daily in the Mass which they maintain they do truly and really Sect. 7. to page 220. CHAP. VIII THeir Doctrine tends to destroy holiness of life by incouraging the continual practice of all sort of wickedness under the notion of venials What hatred of God What acts of Infidelity and Idolatry What distrustful cares What irreligiousness in all Religious exercises What use of Witches Or dealing with the Devil VVhat irreverence towards God in adjuration Sect. 1. to page 213. What impious Swearing almost at every word In horrid terms Without offering to break off this ungodly custome Binding themselves by Oaths and threatning God that they will sin against him And never comply with his will in things which he commends to them as most excellent What fraudulent Oaths What Perjuries of all sorts both as to assertory and promissory Oaths not worse for being most frequent and customary Sect. 2. to page 221. What Blasphemies Out of levity passion or inconsiderateness Or from wicked custome and contempt of a mans own Salvation The more habitual and customary Blaspheming is the better Sect. 3. to page 223. What Prophaning of holy time Where it is manifest that little or nothing at all of Religion need be made Conscience of amongst them even at the only time set apart for the acts and exercises of it Sect. 4. to page 228. What irreverence in Children to Parents They may be ashamed of them And curse them as Parents may curse them again VVhat unaffectionateness They may desire the death of their Parents for some outward advantage Or by accusations procure their death VVhat disobedience in all things out of negligence or sensuality And in matters of greatest importance as to this life Or in matters which concern their Salvation Parents have no right to oblige their Daughters not to be VVhores Sect. 5. to page 231. VVhat Murder of Soul or Body As to acts inward and outward VVhat hatred VVhat outragious anger VVhat revenge Desires of the death not only of Enemies but nearest Relations because they are poor or not handsome may be innocent Actual killing them without deliberation is no fault when not fully deliberate when ordinarily many things may hinder it from being so is but little worse Sect. 6. to page 233. VVhat
their worship for every day which goes under the name of Canonical hours and the divine office and is the proper Service of their Clergy and Monasticks the latter is for holy-daies and is common to the People with the Religious and the only publick Service they are ordinarily obliged to Afterwards we may reflect upon what else passeth under the notion of worship in publick and also take some notice of their devotions or religious employments in private For the first of these their Divine Service if there were any thing of religion or religious worship counted needful amongst them it would be required of their Clergy and those whom by way of eminency they call Religious in their Divine office especially if any where but by their doctrine it is not needful for them to worship God really there unless he can be said to be worshipped where both himself and all that concerns worshippers indeed may as it may by their leave be quite neglected and no way actually minded They seem at least some of them in their discourses of worship and prayer particularly to require as necessary thereto both an act of the mind and of the will attention and intention they call them but proceed with them a little and you will find the former of these quite lost in the latter and the latter as they order it dwindling into nothing It is the common determination of their Schools and Doctors that actual attention of mind is not necessary when they recite their Canonical hours that is they need not mind God in their service nor the matter of it more than the object nor the sense of what they say nor the words they use not any of these need be actually minded A purpose or intention to do it is sufficient though that purpose be not at all performed This is the Doctrine of their great Aquinas (c) Ad hunc effectum viz. mereri non ex necessitate requiritur quod attentio adsit orationi per totum sed vis primae intentionis qua aliquis ad orandum accedit reddit totam orationem meritoriam sicut in aliis meritoriis actibus accidit 2. 2. q. 83. art 13. concerning Prayer in general whom the (d) Ut officium ipsa attentio comitetur actualiter nec in officio nec in aliis orationibus vel bonis operibus requiritur Sylvester sum v. hora n. 13. Edit Lugdun An. 1572. D. Thom. quem omnes sequuntur affirmat impetrationem non pendere ex actuali attentione sed virtualem ad illam sufficere et videtur certa sententia Suarez lib. 3. de orat Vocal c. 5. n. 5. rest commonly follow Attention is not necessary all the while but the vertue of the first intention with which a man comes to prayer renders the whole prayer meritorious as it falls out in other meritorious acts And this first intention also is enough to make the prayer prevalent So he explains his main conclusion viz. (e) Attentare saltem in prima intentione oportet esse orationem si meritoria si impetratoria sit fuâ—…ra mentemque spiritualiter refectura Ibid. Prayer ought to be at least attentive in respect of a previous intention So that they may be attentive enough by vertue of this first intention though they do not at all mind afterwards what they are doing when they should be worshipping Which is just as if they should say a man that goes to Church with an intent to join in their service but falls fast asleep when he comes there serves God effectually and is attentive enough by vertue of that former intention though he sleep all the while It seems it is sufficient in the Church of Rome and effectual even to a degree meritorious to worship God as one that is asleep may worship him if he falls asleep after a good intention However hereby it is manifest that with them it is not needful to worship God at all even in their most solemn service but only to intend some such thing If there be a purpose of worship though God be never worshipped indeed by their doctrine it is enough for him I suppose his Holiness would not think himself well served at this rate The common women at Rome are to pay him a julio a head weekly for the liberty he gives them to drive their there trade now if instead of payment they should alledge an intention of it and declare this is all they are obliged to and that they ought to be acquitted upon that account though they never laid it down he would think himself not paid hereby but scorned he looseth his sacred Reverence and is affronted into the bargain yet at this rate will he have God served by Roman Catholicks Well but if God need not be worshipped but in purpose only and the intention may serve without the act yet sure it must be an actual intention or at least a purpose to worship God If it be not the worship of God that they need intend divine worship is clearly abandoned both in deed and in purpose if it must not be actual there need be actually no thought of worshipping God But I cannot discern that they count either of these necessary They declare plainly that an actual intention is needless in this they generally agree though they differ in the termes by which they use to express it They call it an habitual or a vertual or an implicit intention in opposition to that which is express or actual So that actually either to worship God or to have an intention of worshipping him is more than needs But since they will not have it actual let it be what sort of intention they please otherwise yet sure the thing intended should be the worshipping of God So that they may be said to worship in purpose though they think it needless to do it in deed Whether they count this necessary may be best discerned by their own expressions which they use in some variety Commonly they say (f) Ad horas Canonicas recte pronunciandas requiritur propositum intendendi attendendi sufficit virtuale Martin Navar. Manual Confess cap 1. num 13. ut c. 25 n. 105. Edit Antuerp an 1608. Jac. de Graffys Decision aurear l. 2. c. 51. n. 4. Edit Antuerp an 1596. Sylvest Sum. v. hor. n. 14. a vertual intention may serve Now this is not an intention indeed to worship God but supposeth a former act by vertue of which one is said to have an intention when really he hath none As they call that a vertual attention to worship when a man had a purpose to attend though he do it not at all Answerably a vertual intention to worship will be a purpose or thought to have such a purpose though he never have it Let those who can apprehend how they may be said to worship God so much as in purpose by vertue of a purpose to worship him which they have not but only intend to have
without effect But it may be there is no such intention needful with them for custome may serve to this purpose Soto (g) Preceptum attentionis in divino officio Canonice persolvendo duo includit videlicet ut orandi initio quisque attendat quid agere aggreditur quia vero ad prius membrum satis est ut virtute alicujus praecedentis intentionis consuetudinis fiat Ut si quis dum signum ad horas datur ad chorum de more vadit per illud satisfacit praecepto De Justitia jure Lib. 10. quaest 5. art 5. Edit Lugdun an 1582. The precept for attending the performance of divine service canonically includes two things First that at the beginning of Prayer every one mind what he is going to do But for this former it is enough that it be done by vertue of some former intention and custome as if one when the sign is given for Prayers go as is the custome to the Quire-by this he satisfies the precept Now this he may be accustomed to do without any thought of God or of worshipping him yet by vertue of that custome wherein God is quite neglected he will have their vertual intention to worship him all the intention that they require that is plainly none at all unless by vertue of neglecting God he may be said to mind him Or an habitual intention may serve they sometimes tell us Sylvester (h) Quantum ad intentionem vel attentionem quilibet ad officium obligatus tenetur in principio officii habere intentionem satisfaciendi ita quod officium ab intellectu non ab imaginativa proficiscatur secundum Petr. de Pal. expresseth it thus after Paludanus He is bound in the beginning of the service to have an intent to perform it so that the service may be from his reason and not from his imagination only i. e. he must go about it like a man and not like a beast But least it should seem too hard for a man to go about their service with an intention so much distinguishing him from a Bruit he adds a favourable gloss (i) Quod intellige actu vel habitu seu virtute Sum. v. hor. n 14. This is to be understood saith he either in act or habit or vertue So that if it be but an habitual intention it may suffice (k) Ibid. c. 25. n. 106. Juxta ea quae post alios presertim Majorem scripsimus vid. Jac. Graff ibid. Navarre explains it by this conditional and others with him if one be asked why he takes his Breviary he would answer that he doth it to say Service (l) Navar explicat virtualem intentionem per illam conditionalem quia si interrogaretur quare accipit Breviarium responderet se id facere ad recitandum Veruntamen hoc modo magis explicatur habitualis quam virtualis intentio Suarez l. 3. de Orat. c. 3. n. 6. Now hereby we are told that rather an habitual than a vertual intention is expressed and they acknowledge that such an intention is not sufficient (m) Actus autem humanus non potest esse ab intentione tantum habituali ut omnes supponunt per se constat Idem l. 4. de horis c. 26. n 3. Actus inde procedens non est humanus deliberatus Bellarm. de Sacramentiss l. 1. c. 27. p 92. edit Lugd. an 1599. for a humane act much less therefore for an act of worship Since then they think that such an intention will suffice a purpose to worship God is not needful with them unless they can make divine worship of that which is less than humane or will have the Bruits to be Catholick worshippers They tell us also that this habitual intention is in those that are asleep (n) Nec habet tantum intentionem habitualem quod talem habet dormiens Scotus m. 4. dist 6. quaest 6. qualis etiam in dormiente inesse potest Bellarm. ibid. So Scotus the first founder of this distinction and herein that which they call vertual agrees with it indeed Aquinas (o) 3. quaest 63. art 8. saw no cause to distinguish them and (p) Macor Navar. Soto Graff g. others who affect Scotus his subtilty use the terms as if they were distinct yet confound them in their instances And thus when all the worship which they think needfull is shrunk up into an intention yet that intention is no other than they may have in a dead sleep when they dream of no such thing So that their souls need be no more concerned in worshipping God either when they are at service or when they are addressing themselves to it than if their Church were in mount Celius with the seven sleepers When they are coming to it as we see here they need have no more purpose to worship God than if they were asleep and when they are at it as we said before they need no more attend to what they are a doing than if they were not yet awake They say also an (q) Jo. Macor Navar. in Suar. de Orat. l. 3. c. 3. n. 6. implicite intention will suffice which is as they explain it when a man hath not expresly any thought of praying or worshipping God when he is to read service but only intends (r) Certum imprimis est satis superque esse si in principio accedatur ad recitandum cum proposito implendi praeceptum etiamsi in disoursu orationis in mentem non veniat satis enim est quod non retractetur quia manet virtus prioris attentionis Praeterea ut censeatur quis accedere ad recitandum cum proposito implendi praeceptum satis est quod ex consuetudine quadam velit illam actionem tanquam expletivam sui muneris obligationis vel quod in actu exercito ut sic dicam velit eam facere ut solet quia eo ipso vult illam ut impletivam praecepti Ita sumitur ex Macor Navar. aliis Idem l. 4. de hor. c. 26. n. 6. to accomplish the precept of the Church or to perform his task or to do as he is wont to do As when a man first takes Orders or enters into a Monastery understanding that the Church injoines all in that capacity dayly to recite their canonical hours if he then have an intention to perform this task to do as the Church requires or as others of that quality are wont to do and accordingly say his hours as the fashion is though he have not once a thought of God or worshipping him all his life after either when he is going to service or when he is reading it yet that first intention may suffice yea it is of such sufficiency that any other act of mind or heart either in worship or in order to it becomes needless it is of such admirable efficacy that by vertue of it they can worship God when they mind no such thing as God or
to this Objection that the Command of God or the Church cannot be fulfilled by sin answers according to the opinion commonly maintained amongst them (a) Nos cum communi opinione in praesentia teneamus non esse transgressorem praecepti qui actui bono ex genere suo quem lex praecipiebat apponit aliquam malam circumstantiam Relect de paenit part 4. p. 936. vid. Bonacinum de legibus disp 1. q. 1. punct 9. n. 1. ibi S. Thomas Soto Navar Medina plures alij That he is no Transgressor of the precept who to the Act enjoyn'd and good in its kind adds something sinful He supposeth that the Act commanded by the Church is some way good but withal that the precept may be satisfied though it be done wickedly and that by their common Doctrine Whether the circumstances may be venially or mortally wicked he saith not but leaves us to understand it of either Dominicus a Sato tells us expresly that though what is added to the Act (b) Quamvis simul habeat propositum aliud mortale satisfaciet praecepto quantum ad substantiam Ibid. l. 10. q. 5. a. 5. enjoyned be a mortal wickedness yet the Precept may thereby be satisfied substantially With these Divines of greatest reputation amongst them concurs Navarre (c) Non tamen est tenendum illud Antonini quia praesupponit malo praesertim mortali non posse adimpleri praeceptum quod esse falsum late probavimus c. 21. n. 7. no less renowned and none of them Jesuites the opinion of Antoninus which he is disproving presupposeth saith he that by a sinful Act especially if it be a mortal sin the Command of the Church cannot be fulfilled but that this is false we have largely proved He would have us know that he hath fully demonstrated that the Precept for hearing Mass may be intirely accomplished by deadly crimes This is the judgment of the most eminent Doctors amongst them such as are not of the Society and if they will believe their famous Bishop of the Canaries the common Doctrine in the Roman Church and by this the world may judge what a Church it is what her Religion what her Worship what her Precepts for it are When all that she requires for that worship which is the principal part of her Religion may be satisfied by acts of wickedness such as are mortal and damnable to the Worshippers and most of all others dishonourable to God whom they pretend to worship And let those that are seduced or may be tempted by Seducers seriously consider whether they can wisely trust their souls to such a conduct or be safe in such a communion where there is no more tenderness for the salvation of souls than to be satisfied with such a worshiping of God as will confessedly damn them Sect. 3. Thus much for the manner of their publick worship all of it who ever amongst them it concerns whereby it appears that they count it not necessary that God should have any real worship from them This will be further manifest by what they teach concerning the end of it They maintain that it is lawful for their Clergy and Monasticks too who profess perfection to serve God for their own ends viz. to get preferment or compass a dignity or gain some wordly advantage and so to prostitute the Honour and Worship of God to such low earthly sordid designes as Religious persons would never appear to own but that Irreligion is grown too monstrously big for its vizard He that riseth to their morning Service for this end that he may have his daily devidend if it be not principally for this he sins not So their glossa celeberrima the two Popes Vrbane Caelestine determine that it is lawful for their Clergy to serve God in their Churches for this design and hope to get Ecclesiastical dignity in (d) Glossa illa celeberrima ait peccare quidem eum qui surgit ad matutinas preces principaliter propter distributiones quotidianas non autem illum qui surgit principaliter ut Deo inserviat minus principaliter secundario ut eas lucretur Urbanus Papa Coelestinus determinarunt licere clericis servire Deo in Ecclesijs ob spem ascendendi ad dignitates illarum Imo Gelasius dixit eos ad hunc ascensum spe maioris commodi compellendos Glossa recepta dicit expresse per illum textum licere clerico servire in Ecclesia ad quaerendam aliquam dignitatem modo principaliter ob id non serviat c. cap. 23. n. 101. Navarre But then this great Casuist of so high esteem amongst them that he was sent for from Spain to Rome to give advice and direction to the old Gentleman there that cannot erre understands after (a) Ut probavimus non est bona definitio illa Bartoli qua definit causam principalem esse causam qua cessante cessat effectus id ibid. Ut aliquis finis sit principalis non sufficit quod ille non fieret sine illo sed oportet quod pluris vel tanti aestimetur ac alius finis propter quem ille fit id c. 17. n. 209. c. 20. n. 11. p. 459. Aquinas Jo. Major as he pretends the principal end to be something else than others do It is not that which so much moves the Agent as that without it he would not be drawn to act by any other end and accordingly he will have the premised testimony to be understood (b) Per supra dictos textus glossas quae habent locum etiam in his qui non servirent Ecclesijs vel praelatis nisi sperarent beneficia c. 23. n. 101. So that one of their Perfectionists who riseth to morning prayer for this end that he may have his dividend would not stir (c) Surgens ad matutinas ob distributiones alias non surrecturus ibid. out of his Bed to attend the Worship of God for God's sake or any other end beseeming a Religious person if the consideration of his daily allowance did not rouse him yet he serves God so well herein as that he is sinless and not so much as venially tainted Likewise the Clergy who address themselves to the Worship of God moved thereto more by hopes to gain preferment and dignity than any respect to God yet they sin not That is they worship God well enough though they respect themselves and their own ends more than him or which is all one though they serve themselves rather than God whom they are to worship They are all concerned to maintain this for he tells them if (d) Alioqui enim omnes fere actus nostri essent vitiosi quia paucissimi fiunt pure propter solum Deum solam virtutem c. ibid. p. 590. such acts of Vertue or Worship were Vicious all their acts in a manner would be stark naught since there are extremely few amongst them that are purely done for God
account no act of love nor of any other grace will be needful for them that they may be saved Thus in fine here 's a Religion which pretends to be Christian but excuseth and disingageth all that profess it from the love of Christ a Doctrine which bereaves Religion of that which themselves count its life and quite stifles all the spirits of Christianity chops off all Christian vertues all gracious acts and qualities in this one neck and leaves nothing but a gastly Carkase For obliging them to neglect love as needless it makes the rest impossible without it there can be no saving faith no godly sorrow no filial fear no delight in God no desire to enjoy him no genuine gratitude When the life of a true Christian should be made up of these they leave it not possible for him to have one act of true Christian vertue for without love they say themselves there cannot be any one true vertue Here is a way to Heaven for those that never loved God in life or death a path that pretends to Heaven but lies quite Cross to the way of Christ and leads directly to outer darkness A Doctrine that incourageth them to live in hatred of God all their dayes and in the end sends them out of the World under the dreadful sentence of the Apostle 1 Cor. 16 22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus let him be Anathema Maranatha To conclude this head It is a Doctrine which is damning not only meritoriously but effectually and will certainly ruine eternally all that believe and practise it and hath in it the mortal poyson and malignity of a hundred such speculative Opinions as pass for Heresies And beside the danger and horrible impiety of this Doctrine it is ridiculous to the very highest degree For can any thing be more senseless than to ask how often a man ought to love his best friend and Benefactor whether once in his life be not enough in all Conscience nay whether it be not very fair not to hate him And indeed they state the business all along in such a manner and manage it with such nicety and caution not as if they were afraid lest men should love God too little but as if all the danger lay on the other hand and their great care were that no body should love him too much or love him at all I do not believe that things so palpably impious and ridiculous were ever so solemnly debated by men of any Religion whatsoever CHAP. IV. There is no necessity of saving or justifying faith by the Romish Doctrine Sect. 1. THat no man can be justified or saved without faith is so evident in Scripture that none but an Infidel can question it The Romanists do not express any doubt of it and yet they make no other faith necessary than that which is neither justifying nor saving They have two sorts of faith one for the unlearned and ignorant which they call Implicite The other for the learned and more knowing which they say should be Explicite The former as they describe it is an assent to some general including many particulars with a mind to believe nothing contrary thereunto the general is this That what ever the Roman Church which cannot err believes is true the particulars included are they know not what for they are supposed ignorant Now this we say is no Christian faith and make it apparent that it is no such thing For first it is no belief of any one particular or article of the Christian faith It is only a belief of a general which is no truth at all much less Christian that the Church of Rome cannot err or believe any thing but what is true when the ignorant person neither knows what this Church is nor what she believes nor why he should give her such credit So that the act is a blind conceit unworthy of a Man or a Christian and the object a general error And then as to the particulars which are necessary for Christians to believe this implicite faith doth not actually believe any of them at all if it did it would not be what it is implicite It apprehends them not therefore cannot believe them for as themselves acknowledge (a) Neque enim credi potest quod non cognoscitur Fill. tr 22. n. 39. That cannot be believed which is not known To render this clear to us they thus explain it When (b) Bannes 22. q. 2. art 8. Sect. dubitatur secundo Sum. Rosel verb. fides n. 1. a man is asked whether Christ were born of the Virgin Mary and whether there be one God and three persons and he answers that he knows not but believes touching these things as the Church holds this is to believe implicitely So that a man may have this faith compleatly and yet not believe an article of the Creed and if this be Christian faith a man may have it who believes nothing of Christ They are believers at this rate who have a mind to hold what the Church doth concerning Christ or the Creed though they never know what that is They know not what the Church holds unless the Churches knowing be their knowledge and so believe nothing unless the Churche's believing be their faith and so have no faith to save them unless it be saving faith to believe by an Attorney Secondly as this faith may be without the knowledge and belief of any of the particular Articles which are necessary to be believed by Christians so which is yet more strange it may be with the belief of what is opposite and repugnant to the Christian faith This they acknowledge and clear it to us by instances A man may be disposed to believe what the Church holds and yet may believe that God the Father and God the Son are not equal but one greater and elder than the other or that the persons in the Trinity are locally distant Such is the vertue of implicite faith faith (c) In tantum valet fides implicita quod si quis habens eam falso opinaretur ratione naturali motus Patrem majorem vel priorem Filio vel tres personas localiter distare aâ— simile quid non sit haereticus non peccet dummodo hunc errorem pertinaciter non defendat hoc ipsum credat quia credat ecclesiam sic credere Verb. Credere Sum Rosel v. fides n. 2. After Pope Innocent and Hostiensis Altenstaig that if he who hath it believes these errors or any like them he would be no Heretick he would not sin provided he doth not maintain his error pertinaciously and that he believes because he thinks the Church believes it Or such a Catholick may believe (d) Ut puta vetula credit Trinitatem esse unam Faeminam quoniam credit ecclesiam sic tenere sic credit tamen non est haeretica quia conditionaliter credit si ecclesia sic tenet credit Verb. sides n. 6. that the
impijs tunc enim credere esset actus imprudentiae secundum D. Tho m. 22. q. 1. art 4. ad secundum idem ibid. vid plures in Jo. Sanc. d. 19. n. 3. 4. if the object of faith be not duely proposed if by slight reasons or by impious persons then it would he imprudence to believe or (u) Id. ibid. p. 95. if they do not doubt of their faith or if their Teachers be fallacious or erroneous or if the proposal (x) Aragon in 2. 2. q. 11. art 2. dub ult ibid. p. 01. be not enforced with reasons with holiness of life with the confutation of the contrary and with some wonders In short if they have not had sufficient instruction in this all agree And this alone will excuse a great part of their Church who for want of such instruction are acknowledged by themselves to be Infidells Thus Navarre delivers it (y) In universa Christiana republica circa haec tanta est socordia ut multos passim invenias nihil magis in particulari explicite de hisce rebus credere quam Ethnicum quendam Philosophum sola unius veri Dei naturali cognitione praeditum Cap. 11. n. 22. p. 142. In the whole Christian Commonwealth he means the Roman Church there is so great neglect as to this that ye may find many every where who believe no more of these things i. e. of Christ and the most necessary Articles of the Christian faith in particular and explicitely than some Heathen Philosophers who have only the natural knowledge of the one true God But if the precept could reach any through all these securities which we cannot easily imagine yet there is one way to clear them all of it so that they may live and dye Infidells without danger from any command requiring faith in Christ For he that hath not that express faith which is commanded in the Gospel but only what is requisite necessitate medij is living or dying if he be sorry for his negligence and purpose to amend which may be in their sense without true Repentance capable of absolution without any instruction from his Confessor (a) Imo in rigore non tenetur confessarius etiamsi sanus sit paenitens eum instruere ante absolutionem aummodo enim doleat de preterita negligentia proponat emendationem in futuâ—um capax est absolutionis sola fide explicita circa mysteria necessario credenda ex medio Fill. tr 28. n. 58. vid. Jo. Sanc. d. 9. n. 18. And by vertue of that he may live in a justified state or if he dye he passeth out of the World as a very good Christian though he believe in Christ no more than a Heathen Sect. 2. Pass we to their other sort of faith which they call explicite it is as they define it An actual assent to the particulars which the Church propounds as revealed by God This with them is justifying faith requisite in the learned and more intelligent amongst them As to the object of it if we view it well it looks untowardly for a thing by which a sinner is to be justified For it is prodigiously extended and takes in things uncertain false impossible impertinent and ridiculous as points that must certainly be believed unto justification For their Church propounds as things revealed by God and so objects of justifying faith not only what is delivered in Scripture but â—nwritten Traditions concerning matters of faith and manners and â—hese if they will be justified they must believe though they know â—ot what they are nor where to find them but in the Churches unerâ—ing fancy She propounds also the unanimous consent of the Fathers â—n several points and though this never was or is impossible to be â—nown yet it must be believed by those that mean to be justified She propounds the decrees of Councils to be believed as Divine truths b Omnia concilia post Chalcedonense potissimum instituta fuerunt non ut erueretur veritas sed ut roboraretur defenderetur atque augeretur semper ecclesiae Romanae potestas ecclesiasticorum libertas Aeneas Sylvius l. 2. de gest conc Basil when it is acknowledged that the design in Councils for many hundred years was not to discover truth but to promote the Roman greatness She propounds also the determinations of Popes these must be believed as infallible when ordinarily they were neither persons of common truth or honesty and we must be justified by believing the dictates of Atheists or (c) Canus loc Theol. l. 6. p. 243. 344. Hereticks of (d) Sylvest 2. Platin. Chron. Martini Poloni Hildeband Binno Cardin. Conjurers (e) Faex vitiorum Diabolus incarnatus Constan concil Sess 11. art 5. Benedict 9. vid. Baron an 1034. n 3. or incarnate Devils of vicious Beasts (f) Sunt qui scribunt hunc sceleratissimum hominem seu monstrum potius Platina viâ—a Joh. 13. and wicked Monsters For those who cry up â—is Holiness have adorned him also now and then with these other Sacred Titles I know not whether these things are more ridiculous or more horrid how ever letting them pass as they are let us take their faith at best and make it better than they will have it Suppose it rested in the Scriptures and had no thing for its object but Revelation such as is truly Divine yet even so they give such Report of it as will scarce suffer us to think that they can expect to be justified by it Considered in it self they (c) Dominic a Soto de natur grat lib. â—…◠7. d. 79. 81. count it not worthy the name of a vertue They (d) Concil Trident. Sess 6. c. 7 call it a dead idle thing and though they would have it to be an infused habit and the gift of God because the Scripture so calls that which is justifying faith indeed yet they say a (e) Scotus in 3. dist 23. air fide humana quam ipse appellat acquisitam hominem posse assentiri toti praedicationi Christianae Imo ita inquit credimus authoritate ecclesiae quam ipse putat humanam institutione parentum Cui sententiae adhuc explicatius subscribit Durandus q. 1. in 2. sent d. 28. Dicens fidem infusam non esse necessariam nisi uâ— facilius credamus Soto ibid. l. 2. c. 8. p. 81. mere humane quality acquired without any supernatural assistance may perform its proper act and office by actual assent to the whole Christian Doctrine They confess it is commonly found in the worst of men in perditissimis hominibus such as are neither acted nor possessed by the spirit of God such as live and dye in mortal wickedness (f) Bellarm. de Baptism l. 1. c. 14. and are damned for it Yea some of them confess that it is in the Devils This faith saith Cardinal (g) Fiâ—es haec non est ea tantum qua credimus Deum esse qua credimus vera esse
morâ—…fiâ—a Navar. c. 1. n. 22. quod tenendum est cum Jo. Majore Cardinale S. Sixti alij communiter in Bonacin ibid. punct 6. A particular Repentance is not required but one general will serve extending it self at least vertually to all mortal sins both which he remembers and remembers not with a will to abstain from all this is enough for Remission of sins Further this one act of grief needs be but very little and slender the very least remorse in the lowest degree that can be will serve When they require no sensible sorrow at all to Repentance but only a dislike of the will or a will not to have sinned the best and weakest motion of the will that way against past sins will suffice To (e) Ad perfectionem paenitentiae requiritur tenuis quidam dolor internus sum q. 16 â—…t 1. Contritio una licet remissa l. 3. c. 5. the perfection of Repentance a certain slender inward grief is requisite saith Maldonat one act of Contrition though it be remiss is enough saith Tolet. These two are Jesuites but speak more modestly than others of their Doctors Let us hear Canus (f) Praeceptum de actu fidei de actu spei homo implet etiamsi non agat ex toto conatu ergo praeceptum de charitate contritione non ergo contritio totum animi conatum exigit Quod autem nullum ejusmodi esset praeceptum patet esset enim stultum praeceptum quod semper invincibiliter ignoratur Relell de paenit pars 3. p. 841. we need not grieve for sin as much as we can such an endeavour is not required in any other precept for Love Faith Hope or Righteousness Yea they would be foolish precepts if they enjoyned a certain degree But if we need not grieve so much as we can how then Why as little as can be or if that will not satisfie As little as we will Quantumcunque sit remissa (g) Quantumcunque sit remissa satis est ad crimina diluenda Cap. 1. n. 31 S cundum mentem communem Doctorum saith Navarr Penitence be it never so little it is sufficient for the washing away of all crimes according to the common sense of the Doctors (h) Secundum S. Thom. quaecunque contritio vera quantumvis remissa etiam in instanti concepta satis est ad remittenda omnia mortalia Cap. 15. p. 94. De paenit l. 2. c. 11. p. 943. Contrit n. 106. quantumvis remissa Be it as little as you will sayes Lopez after Aquinas (k) Dicendum est ad rationem contritionis nullam definitam intensionem requiri sed sufficere substantiam actus in quocunque gradu siat Suarez tom 4. disp 4. Sect. 4. Ita expresse Gabriel Soto Medina Vega Navarrus ibid. n. 9. vid. plures in Bonacin ibid. punct 7. n. 3. No certain degree none that can be assigned above the least of all is requisite in Bellarmine Victoria c. But should there not be a degree more than the least for the more grievous sins No no more for them than the less In (i) l Licet de graviori peccato gravior requiratur paenitentia sive paenitudo hoc tamen intelligendum est de consilio honestate non autem de necessitate Navar. c. 1. n. 31. honesty we may grieve more for the greater to comply with the advice of God but there is no necessity for it it 's only matter of Counsel and so left to our pleasure But must we not grieve for sin as those who conceive it to be hateful above all and most to be avoyded No (m) Detestari peccatum supra omne malum paenae non necessarium Cajetan Navar Vega in Suarez ibid. disp 3. Sect. 9. n. 8. not that neither Lopez (n) Nullum concilium nec Sancti nec Scriptura Sacra id supra omne odibile dolorem necessarium esse expressere c. 15. p. 92. tells us that neither Council nor Scripture have declared it necessary to grieve for sin as that which is most hateful and which is more than all that the Council of Trent requires it not Navarr (o) Cap. 1. n. 25. had said as much before him only the former thinks it may be requisite that the penitent do not expresly or positively form in his mind a Resolution not to grieve for sin above all that is hateful Thus is Repentance reduced in a manner to nothing in respect of Appretiation it is too much to grieve for sin as that which is most odious in respect of intenseness it is enough to grieve less for it than other grievances the least degree of all is sufficient and that which is next to nothing may serve Moreover this one act so extreamly little may be dispatched (*) Sufficit si fiat in instanti Bonacin ibid. punct 8. ibi Nugnus Molfesius alij in a moment The least degree of it is enough but the least continuance is too much all the Repentance that is a Sinners duty may be perfectly finished in the twinkling of an eye an indivisible instant can serve all the exigencies of it and it may be as soon over as a man can say peccavi It 's such an act as vanishes so soon as ever it appears and is come and gone before there is time to observe it they allow not the least space the least particle of time to be necessary for it And it is so in Faith Hope Love and other vertues no man ever required any space of time for this so Bellarmin (p) Non requiritur certus gradus intensionis neque mora ulla temporis ad veram contritionem Quis unquam in Praeceptis fidei spei dilectionis aliarumque virtutum istas mensuras excogitavit c. De paenit l. 2. c. 11. p. 943. Canus (q) Canus pars 3. Relect. de paenit p. 842. de Graffiis (r) Graff l. 1. c. 5. n. 7. so Navar (s) Secundum mentem communem Doctorum quam explicat Jo. Major paenitudo circumamicta debitis circumstantijs supradictis quantumcunque remissa brevissimo tempore etiam in instanti concepta satis est ad crimina diluenda Cap. 1 n. 31. n. 22. n. 38. so all in a manner for he tells us it is the common sense of their Divines The least penitence that may be in the shortest time that can be yea in that which is less than any particle of time even in an instant is enough to blot out all crimes And Scotus for saying that penitence dispatched in a moment is not sufficient for pardon had like to have suffered shrewdly every one almost being ready to fall foul upon him (t) Vid. Lopez cap. 15. p. 94. alij Scotislae videntur Scotum salvare ejus sensum mentem interpreâ—ando Nam culpam posse remitti per contritionem etiam remissam habitam in instanti non dubitavit c. but his followers have
a Priest so Aquinas in 4. dist 17. q. 3. art 3. or he may have the Eucharist administred to him without a Priest and it is their common doctrine that the Eucharist justifies one that is in mortal sin if he be attrite and thinks but himself contrite yea he may administer it to himself with the same effect in case of necessity divers of all sorts amongst them are of this opinion The Authority of Aquinas is alledged for it 3. q. 82. art 3. and Cajetan in Matth. 26. The example of the Queen of Scots commonly produced who having the Sacrament by her administred it to her self is highly approved by all Thus far Satan has prevailed with them to promote the Damnation of Sinners by hardning them in impenitence even when the interest of their Priests seems a little concerned But what if a Catholick Sinner relying upon such Impostors still neglect true Repentance and death surprize him so suddenly as to render these other devices unpracticable is not his case then desperate No he may have as good hopes of Salvation as other Catholicks have a probable ground for his hope and none must have any certainty Such a ground is the judgement of their Angelical Doctor who declares that if one sick desires pennance and before the Priest comes he dyes or is speechless the Priest may look on him as if he had confessed and may absolve him being dead Opusc 63. de offic Sacerd. Accordingly Clemens 8. Absolved one whom he saw falling from St. Peters Church in Rome Molfes t. 1. tr 7. c. 5. n. 48. So that any may be Absolved i. e. Pardoned and Sanctified for the sense of the Priests Absolvo is I give thee grace which pardons thy sins Impendo tibi gratiam remissivam peccatorum ut communiter Doctores in Jo. Sanc. disp 27. n. 18. even after they are dead if they did but desire confession before Now those amongst themselves who do not desire confession while they live are such only as will not have Salvation if they might upon the most trivial terms and so none need fear Damnation how impenitent soever otherwise they live and dye but such as are worse than any Devil now in Hell And who can accuse them as too rigid if they make true Repentance unavoidably necessary for such as these since this doctrine makes it needful for none besides All these ways any man may be saved without true Repentance if he will believe the Roman Doctors though if we believe Christ he shall certainly perish that repents not what-ever course he takes besides Any of these are probable and may be by their principles having grave Doctors more than enough to authorize them safely followed but that of the Councils prescribing is infallible and will not fail to secure those who practise it if any thing in their Church may have credit nor can fail to ruine those who follow it if the word of God may be trusted Thus while they would increase their party by having it thought that in their way scarce any Roman Catholick will be Damned they take the course in this as in other particulars that none who wâ—ll follow them can be saved unless salvation be for the impenitent Sect. 9. By this it is also manifest that the charge brought against them in the three last Articles for making Saving Faith Love to God and true Repentance needless in life or death is not founded only upon the opinion of their private Doctors or the greatest part of them but hath that which they count the surest ground of all the determination of a general Council confirmed by the Pope For if Attrition be sufficient as that Council declares then true Repentance is not necessary If grief for sin out of slavish fear or shame only without any love to God be enough then Love to God is needless and if Love be not needful then Faith which works by Love and is the only saving Faith is needless till there be no time for it to work But is it credible that they who sometimes seem to lay so great stress upon these graces as necessary to salvation should contradict not only the Scriptures but themselves and make them needless not only all a mans life before but even when he is dying sure they must have some device to supply in pretence at least the want of these if not before yet at the point of death and will substitute something in their stead of supposed equivalence to them Indeed they are fruitful in inventions tending to ruine souls and subvert the doctrine of salvation and one particularly they have in this case and that is what we before mentioned their Sacrament of Pennance When a man is near death if he be Attrite and confess his mortal sins to a Priest and be absolved by vertue thereof he hath remission of sins and together therewith infusion of grace particularly of Faith Hope and Charity Thus they come to have grace in a moment who lived graceless all their days before and had dyed so if such a Rite had not been provided for their relief By vertue of this Sacrament Love is planted in their heart and their Faith in God and sorrow for sin is formed by Love and becomes saving so that if they dye presently in that state their salvation is secured But what if they live must not these habits be afterwards exercised must not there be some act of contrition in those who never had any before No by their doctrine there is no necessity for it though there be no true actual Repentance without it The question is in one of their greatest Divines Whether (u) An etiam in lege gratiae post obtentam justificationem per Sacramentum paenitentiae cum sola attritione maneat haec obligatio habendi contritionem Dicendum est per se loquendo non manere in lege nova obligationem hanc post praedictam justificationem Ita sentiunt omnes qui putant Sacrameneum paenitentiae justificare cum sola attritione cognita Suarez tom 4. disp 15. Sect. 4. n. 12. 13. in the Law of Grace after justification obtained by the Sacrament of Pennance with Attrition alone there remain any obligation to have Contrition and it is resolved that there is no such obligation and that this is the judgment of all those who hold that the Sacrament of pennance doth justifie with Attrition alone known to be so and (x) Aquinas Scotus Paludanus Capreolus Durandus Adrian Antoninus Sylvester Cano ibid. disp 20. Sect. 1. n. 9. Corduba Vega Soto in Vasquoz Corduba docet quod qui justificatus est Sacramento paenitentiae cum contritione tantum existimata non tenetur eorundem peccatuoâ—m contriâ—ionem veram habere eam aperte colligere licet ex Soto ita Vega. in 3. Thom. q. 86. a 2. d. 2. n. 11. these are the most for number and the most considerable for authority in their Church and Schools Aquinas and Scotus both
as certain as they would have a decree of the Council of Trent accounted that though sinners neglect the great Duties and Acts of Christians and live in any wickedness opposite to the rule of Christ yet the Church hath a device to save them and by it they may be sure to escape Hell without true Repentance What is this but to declare that the most damnable neglects and practices shall never damn them though they never repent thereof the Church hath a trick to secure them notwithstanding What is this but to proclaim that the Lawes of God and the rules of the Gospel are unnecessary impositions without the observance whereof Salvation may be had The knowledge of Christ explicite faith in him actual love of him which comprize all the rest as they teach are not necessary as means Salvation may be had without them and as for a necessity hereof by vertue of any Precept that is not considerable but in reference to the danger of not observing the precept and there 's no danger in this though the neglect hereof were in their account a mortal sin no more than in Venials or no sins at all if it will not damn those who never truly repent of it So that plainly by excusing sinners from Repentance they make all sins safe and all duties needless and give men assurance that they may live and dye impenitently in the neglect of all even the most important duties and in the practice of any the worst wickedness and yet be saved There never was any Heresie broached in the World more monstrous and pernicious than this which the Council of Trent hath brought forth it hath all the damnable wickedness both as to judgment and practice that ever was or can be on Earth in the bowels of it It promotes the Birth the Growth the continuance thereof for it promiseth safety to impenitency therein yea Salvation too by a knack of a very easie use and new invention It hath in it the venome of all damning opinions practices and neglects for that which makes them all deadly is impenitency not would they without this be finally and unavoydably destructive But this would have impenitency it self swallowed CHAP. VI. Their Doctrine leaves no necessity of Holiness of life and the exercise of Christian Vertues Sect. 1. HOliness of life is needless by the Popish Doctrine though the Lord hath made this every way necessary both as a duty which he indispensably requires and as a means without which he ordinarily will save no man it is declared necessary both wayes at once Heb. 12. 14. The Papists indeed boast much of it and seem sometimes to lay great stress on it as if they would have it to be a character of the true Church concluding theirs is the only true Church because there is no Holiness to be found in the World but amongst them only Thus they pretend it to be of greatest consequence but this is but to serve another turn the design is not for Holiness of life for their Doctors count that more than needs And really they are extream good Husbands here and make a little Holiness go a great way for it is enough to denominate the Universal Church holy if there be but one holy person in it so Costerus (a) Tametsi ejus plurima membra sint emortua impia non amittit tamen Sancti nomen quamdiu vel unus pietatem ex animo colens retinet sanctitatem Enchirid. l. 3. c. 8. Possibile est quod tota fides remaneret in uno solo verum esset dicere quod fides non deficit in ecclesia Abbas in Sylvest v. Concil n. 3. How many soever of its Members be dead and impious so long as there is any one man that retains Holiness the Church must be called holy And then to make this one man holy one act of vertue is enough and that a very slender one too for saith Bannes (b) Quilibet actus charitatis quantumlibet remissus sufficit ad implendum omnia praecepta in 2. 2ae q. 44. a 5. Any one act of Charity how weak soever it be is enough to fulfil all the commandements of God Now he is doubtless a holy man who fulfils all those Commandements Further this one act he need but do once and that not all his life he may defer it till he dye if he have no mind to trouble himself with it in any part of his life before as we have already shewed Yea and he may be excused from it when he is a dying too as well as whilest he lives if he can but get a Priest to absolve him and (c) Vid. above 40 Doctors for this in Jo. Sanc. disp 44. n. 34. Sacramenta Baptismi absolutionis posse conferri etiam ijs qui in periculo vitae sunt licet ipsi vi morbi oppressi non habeant usum rationis aut sensuum modo constét eos antea desiderasse ejusmodi Sacramenta Bellarm. de effect Sacrament l. 2. c. 8. p. 121. Actus charitatis semper requiritur ad justificationem seclusis tamen Sacramentis Sacramenta autem in non ponente obicem eundem habent effectum quem haberet charitas contritio sine Sacramento Canus Relect de paen t. pars 3. p. 844. Thus though an act of charity or repentance be requisite alwayes where the Sacraments cannot be had yet the Sacraments in him that gives no obstruction as he does not who has neither the use of sense or reason have the same effect that love to God or Repentance would have without the Sacrament i. e. the Sacrament will justifie and save them who have no act of love to God or true Repentance the Priest must absolve him if the dying man give but any sign which may be interpreted a desire of it And their Sacrament he must have and be absolved absolutely when speechless and senseless if any can but witness that he desired Confession Antonin 3. part tit 10. c. 2. Sylvest v confess 3. n. 16. Paludan dist 21. q. 2. a. 2. Concl. 2. Yea if he did not desire it nor ever give any sign of Repentance he may be conditionally absolved Rituale Pauli 5. And though he have lived wickedly without restraint all his days if at last gasp he be attrite and have but though it never appear the vertue of Judas â—only hoping better i. e. presuming more than he did by vertue of such absolution he will be as certainly saved as other good Catholicks though the other unfortunate wretch for want of a Priest as vertuous as himself to absolve and give him hope was unhappily damned See here a most compendious way to be holy who can imagine any other but that such principles as these make holiness of life extreamly needful But more particularly we may discover how necessary they judge it by what they determine concerning the necessity of exercising Christian vertues and the forsaking of sin There is no need of
either of these by their Doctrine Sect. 2. It is not necessary to live in the exercise of such vertues though one would think that Religion could not be Christian which obligeth not the professors of it to Christian vertues and excuseth them from the most proper Character of true Christianity yet those who have the confidence to account themselves the only true Christians do this For they teach that the acts of these vertues are required by affirmative precepts and such commandements oblige not at all times no nor alwayes when there is occasion and opportunity for the exercise of them but only in the Article of necessity and when this is it is not certain there 's no determination of it it must be left to discreet men to judge and being left to men either they find no time for it at all or none that will signifie it needful to live in the exercise of such vertues To exert an Act of vertue once a year or once in many years or once in a whole life or at the hour of death is far enough from the dayly exercise of Christian vertues or an intimation that it is needful in their account who so determine But indeed their Church is more indulgent and assures them all that have no more regard for their Souls than to believe it That at the hour of death one act of slavish fear though themselves count not that so much as a (d) Aquinas 2. 2. q. 19. moral vertue with confession will excuse the neglect of every Christian vertue all their lives and make their way at last into Heaven though they never had one act of vertue any one character of a Christian all their dayes A pleasant doctrine indeed and greedily to be swallowed by those that have an Antipathy to a holy life if the Gospel and the Doctrine of Christ concerning Hell and Heaven and the way to it could be counted but Fables Sect. 3. They reckon but Three Theological or Divine vertues all the other they call moral of which the Divine are the (e) Virtutes Theologicae quae sunt circa ultimum finem sunt causae omnium aliarum virtutum Aquinas 2. 2. q. 161. art 4. ad primum foundation and so all the rest must stand or fall with them Now two of these three they make needless as is before declared and without these two Hope which is the third is so far from being needful that it is not possible to have it as themselves (f) Fides spes sine charitate proprie loquendo virtutes non sunt nam ad rationem virtutis pertinet ut non solum secundum ipsam aliquod bonum operemur sed etiam bene Aquinas 1. 2. q. 6◠art 4. acknowledge A lively hope with them is needless till they (g) Tempus quo obligan t praecepta fidei spei esse idem quod tempus charitatis Fill. tr 22. n. 293. be dying and then it can but be like the giving up of the Ghost For to all that follow their Doctrine and look after no more than that makes necessary their hopes at last can be no better no other than the expectation of such a pardon of sin as a Priest can give to an impenitent person one to whom the Lord did never give hopes of pardon And this is a hope than which despair it self is more hopeful for this leaves no sense of danger which despair retains and so leaves no desire nor endeavour to avoid it even when they are sinking into bottomless misery Hope is no more needful with them than a House is to him who thinks himself concerned to dig up the foundation of it and counts it enough that he hath a Castle in the Air. And when they have left nothing that can be a real ground of hope they found it upon that which is worse than nothing their own (h) Actus spei est expectare futuram beatitudinem a Deo qui quidem actus perfectus est si fiat ex meritis quae quis habet quod non potest esse fine charitate Aquin. 1. 2. q. 65. art 4 c. Propria certitudo spei est ex meritis Certitudo quae non est praesumptio ex meritis est meritis se cometitur Alex. Alensis q. 65. in 3. merits that which is inconsistent with the free grace of God and the merits of Christ without which Sinners are hopeless It is a conjecture founded upon a delusion upon merit which no man can have and themselves say none of them know they have and so upon they know not what Oh! wretched hopes that have not so much for their foundation as the Sand that have nothing to bear them up but a proud and groundless fancy that we might count ridiculous if it were not too horrid to be the matter of sport Can they blame those who doubt whether they will be saved when they themselves have no better hopes of their own salvation How much they are concerned for hope they declare when they tell us that the precept for hope does but of it self oblige when the soul is tortured with the more grievous assaults of despair (†) Quando graviores desperationis impetus animum vexant Victorel ad Tol. l. 4. c. 7. and Bonacin with others in 1. praecep d. 3. q. 3. p. 2. n. 2. It seems unless they be violently tempted to despair they need not hope This rarely falls out as to any and is scarce the case of one in a thousand so that there is not one of a thousand in Popery who would have any hope in God or of mercy from him No not any at all as others teach for the command for hope is satisfied both by grief for sin and also by a purpose against it Dian. after others v. Spes So that either of these or both at lest will supersede all acts of hope for ever and make them needless And indeed he that considers what sorrow and purposes they count sufficient may believe them when they teach that these leave them without hope Sect. 4. The next in excellency to the divine graces by (i) Post virtutes Theologicas humilitas est virtutum excellentissima potissina Aquinas 2. 2. q. 161. art 5. their account is humility and for this their doctrine makes excellent provision as a vertue most necessary by quite sweeping away the true ground of it It leaves them without sense of any sinfulness weaknesses or unworthiness to make or keep them humble Being baptized by vertue thereof all the sinfulness of their natures is not only pardoned or weakned but quite washed away and utterly abolished (k) Concil Trident. sess c. supra So that they are Pure Immaculate Innocent even as our first Parents were in the state of Innocency not any thing left in the least that can be truly counted sin So that it would be very absurd and irrational for them to be humble under the sense of any remaining
rest There can be no (k) Spirituale gaudium quod de Deo habetur ex charitatis dilectione oritur Aquin. 2. 2. q. 28. art 1. delight in enjoying that which we love not nor can the enjoyment of it be desirable So also there can be no filial fear without love for love is essential to it and thereby it is distinguished from that which is slavish Ingenuous (l) Timor castus sive amicalis quo timemus ne Sponsus tardet ne discedat ne offendamus ne eo careamus timor iste de amore venit Mag. sentent 3. dist 34. Timor ex amore generatur Bonavent 3. dist 34. n. 83. quanto aliquis plus habet de spiritu amoris tanto plus habet de spiritu timoris Idem ibid. n. 87. vid. Aquin. 2. 2. q. 19. fear springs from love and is nourished by it and increaseth or declines with it It cannot be nor act but when and where love is and is acted So that together with love the fear of God and the acts of it are cashiered even all due Reverence of him and care not to offend him (*) Licet nonnulli existiment dari speciale praeceptum horum timorum ita ut eorum defectu speciale peccatum committatur oppositum tamen docetur communiter longeque est probabilius Pet. S. Joseph de 1 praecepto p. 55. It is their common Doctrine that there is no special command either for servile or filial fear of God so that the want of it need neither be confessed nor repented of So likewise There can be no hatred of sin or sorrow for it as it is an offence or dishonour to God (*) Nulla virtus est vera virtus sine charitate Aquinas nor any true vertue at all without love nor love without faith nor faith without knowledg Now these radical graces being rendred needless by their Doctrine as I have declared before They hereby stubb up all the rest by the Roots so that neither sprigg nor bud thereof can be expected To tell us after this that they count any exercise of Christian vertue needful is as if a man should take the spring out of his watch and then perswade us seriously that he counts it very necessary it should still go and the Wheels be always in regular motion Sect. 7. But let us stay here a little longer and observe how their principles concerning love particularly disingage all from any exercise of vertue and every act that is truly Christian They take notice in vertue of a goodness that is merely Moral such as may be found in Heathens and of a goodness that is Divine and supernatural such as ought to be in Christians This latter they tell us is derived from their end when in the exercise of them they are referred to God as our supernatural end and acted for his sake (m) Vid Navar. cap. 14. n. 7. with an intent to please him They (n) Convenit inter omnes ut opus referri debeat in Deum ut finem supernaturalem si futurum sit meritorium vitae aeternae at opera virtutum caeterarum non referuntur in Deum ut finem supernaturalem nisi a charitate imperentur dirigantur c. Bellarm. de justific l. 5. cap. 15. p. 958. declare further That they cannot be thus referred to God without affection for him nor done with a design to please him unless they be done out of love to him and so must be at least IMPERATE acts of love that they may be Choistian acts and any thing better than nature in the Heathen might reach And yet they conclude as appears before by variety of Testimonies that we are not obliged to observe any command or act any other vertue out of love to God They find no (o) Non obligat pro semper sed certis opportunisque temporibus extra quae ideo tempora non est cur obligemur caetera ex charitate praestare Soto de Just l. 2. q. 3. art 10. time at all when we are obliged to this unless it be when we are bound to have an inward act of love for God but when this is they never agree except in this that it may be never For those who seem to say that it should be sometime though but seldome or but once for all in other words signifie it need not be at all since they assign something else which may serve instead of it when ever it may be thought requisite Thus according to their Rule in indefinite precepts their wise men have determined if their School-Doctors or Casuists or their Council of Trent will pass for wise Now being thus discharged from doing any thing out of love They are thereby exempted from all Christian acts and any other Christianity as to the exercise of vertue their honest Heathenisme It 's true They hold they cannot be saved without meritorious acts and cannot well think them meritorious if they be no better than merely Heathenish they should one would think have some Christian character upon them and this of love (p) Vid. Bellarm. Supra particularly that they may merit Salvation and if they disingage their Catholicks from this they make it not needful for them to be saved But I cannot help that seeing they will have it so If they think there is no necessity their Catholicks should be Christians as they do when they make no Act truly Christian needful for them they conclude it not necessary for them to be saved unless they believe that such as are no Christians can be heirs of salvation Their Church Pope or Council or who-ever it is must provide them some other Heaven since that which is prepared for Christians they need not no one step of the way to it being needful for them All the necessity laid upon them by the Popish profession is not for salvation but for something else they must be Roman Catholicks but they need not be true Christians they must be the Popes subjects but they need not be Christs Disciples and this and the rest because they need not learn of him one Christian act while they live Sect. 8. Moreover all exercise of Virtues so opposite to Acts in their account but venially evil is with them unnecessary And this goeth neer not only to discharge all acts of Virtue which are required of Christians but such also as were found even in Pagans This is grounded upon their doctrine concerning venial sins these with them are not necessarily to be avoyded being either not prohibited by any command as most of them hold or by no command necessary to be observed as some of them had rather express it and therefore no need that the virtuous acts opposite to them should be practised Upon this account no exercise of Virtue will be necessary but what is consistent with the vicious acts contrary thereunto in any degrees of wickedness which they think Venial no acts of Temperance Sincerity Righteousness Truth or
c. 12. Nec ulla leges divinae consultoriae etiam ad veniale obligant Navar. c. 23. n. 49. c. 21. n. 43. Inobedientia aut est contra consilium tunc si sit consilium perfectionis non est peccatum Sylvest v. inobedient n. 2. ut enim optime ait Suarez operari contra consilium nulla nece minima Christi offensio est Jo. Sanc. ibid. A neglect of Counsel is no sin at all It is not only no sin to neglect these Counsels at other times but also when God calls us to comply therewith by divine inspirations and motions of his Spirit to disobey these calls and resist these inspirations is no fault at all Cardinal Tolet is rejected as too rigid for counting it so bad as a venial fault not to yield to these divine inspirations Jo. Sanc. disp 7. n. 4 So that if the great God calls to us either by his Spirit or by his Word or both together as our Counsellor we need not regard it we may resist both and yet be innocent Herein others concur Aquinas himself counts it no sin to neglect Counsels even against Conscience dictating that it is good to follow them 2. sentent dist 39. q. 3. art 3. ad 6. They may refuse the observance of them with some contempt a presumptive contempt i. e. a continued neglect thereof passeth without controll as innocent (a) Contemptus negativus est peccatum mortale si Dei lex quam violat est praeceptiva aut veniale vel nullum si est consultoria tantum Sylvester v. contempt n. 3. A negative contempt hereof is justified as either a small fault or none at all And some of them exclude not a positive contempt of these Counsels of perfection but allow a contemptuous neglect of them as sinless (b) Si vero non contemnit autoris potestatem sed observantiam consilij seu exhortationis sic solum peccat venialiter si consilium est reverentiae si vero est consilium perfectionis nec etiam venialiter peccat tunc est perfectionis quum licite potest dimittere Sit Archi. 6. dis sic intellige Gloss jura quae alligat Sum. v. contempt n. 1. omittere rem levem ex contemptu formali non est mortale vid. plures in Dian. p. 3. tr 6. res 72. So Angelus after their Law and Gloss and their Saint Antoninus They may glory in their neglect of these divine Counsels and make their boast thereof this will be but a slight fault at most for they may glory in any thing but mortal crimes and this is not so much as venial It will be no worse if they not only neglect (c) Et ex hoc patet quid dicendum de eo qui attediatus abhominatur divina spiritualia quoniam nisi sint necessaria ad salutem ea demittat vel deliberate disponat dimittere non peccat mortaliter Angel Sum. v. accidia n. 1. but abandon them with some abhorrence too They may bind themselves by Oath not to observe them it will be but a small fault at worst to Swear and call God to witness that they will not follow his Counsels (d) Non est peccatum mortale per se loquendo jurare aliquid contrarium consilij Glossa Tabien Cajetan Navar c. 12. n. 16. Antoninus Soto alij in Suarez de Juram l. 3. c. 18. n. 6. Graff l. 2. c. 15. n. 6. c. 18. n. 11. So they commonly determine and (e) Hujusmodi juramenta sine peccato observari possâ—nt Navar ibid. if they be true to their Oath it will be no fault at all So that if we be loth to believe that they abandon holiness in the exercise of Christian vertues as a thing superfluous and more than needs under this notion of Counsels to put us out of doubt they are ready to Swear it and their Doctors assure them they may do it safely Sect. 10. But if all this were otherwise and any exercise of vertue were needful by their doctrine yet would there be no necessity of it but only during the Popes pleasure For by their principles if the Pope should determine that any Vertue were a Vice all Romanists are bound in Conscience to conform to his judgment and Vertue must be avoyded as if it were a Vice indeed Bellarmin their chief Champion who is wont with so much confidence to deny or with so great Artifice to hide or disguise any thing in Popery which may render his party either odious or ridiculous delivers himself plainly to this purpose (f) Si autem Papa erraret praecipiendo vitia vel prohibendo virtutes teneretur Ecclesia credere vitia esse bona virtutes malas nisi vellet contra conscientiam peccare De Rom. Pontif. lib. 4. cap. 5. p. 721. Sect. secunda If the Pope saith he should mistake in commending Vices and forbidding Vertues the Church would be bound to believe those Vices to be good and those vertues to be evil unless she would sin against Conscience The Cardinal would have us think that he proceeds herein upon an impossible supposition and that the Pope cannot thus mistake as to commend Vices or forbid Vertues but the world knows that this is so far from being impossible that he hath already actually done it and this in such instances as may well perswade us that it is not only possible but likely that there is not any Virtue but if occasion serve and his interest requires it he may forbid it and declare it a sin yea and bind the Church in Conscience to avoyd it as if it were a Vice (*) He may bind the Catholick Church in Conscience to believe a Lye and to call good evil and evil good This is to speak home and now let Bellarmin say a worse thing of Antichrist if he can and shew us what the Gates of Hell can be imagin'd to design or attempt more destructive to the Christian Church and Religion than what he supposes the Pope to have full power and authority from Christ to do He may do it with as much demonstration of Reason Holiness and Infallibility in any case as he hath already done it in too many Since then that Church hath so far subjected all the Conscience and Reason they have unto him as they cannot without sin but believe him if he should determine that light is darkness and good is evil he may take away all Conscience of Vertue and the exercise of it when ever he pleaseth there will be no need of any act of Vertue for any Papist if he list but out of his Chair to say so they cannot without sinning against Conscience practice any if he do but the same thing in the rest as he hath done in a great many already This is enough to shew how needless they count the exercise of Christian Vertues and so how unnecessary they make all holiness of life but it will be
it is no improbable observation that the bloody Wars and Massacres that have been for many Hundred years in those places which the Papal influence could reach cannot be imputed to any thing more for the most part than the Perjuries of the Popes themselves and of those whom they involved in that guilt by discharging them from the obligation of their Oaths Sect. 5. And this brings me to some other Crimes forementioned Robberies and Murders which the wonderful power of Papal holiness hath transformed into Christian and vertuous acts By the Doctrine of their Church to deprive those whom they count Hereticks of their Estate and Lives is a vertue and a meritorious act There is too good evidence for this A decree of Pope Innocent 3. Recorded in the Tomes of their Councils by their own Writers as an authentick act of the general Council of Lateran under that Pope and inserted by Gregory 9. into the Decretals which is the Law of their Church and part of that which passes with them for Divine Law There is there can be no act of their Church more Authoritative and obliging than such a decree as this There first of all (q) Cap. 3. Concil Later sub Innocent 3. in Crab. Tom. 2. p. 947 948. Excommunicamus Anathematizamus omnâ—m Haerisim condemnantes vniversos haereticâ—s quibuscunque nominibus censeantur ita quod bona damnatorum si laici fuerint confiscetur Hereticks are Excommunicated and condemned and then it is decreed that the Estates of those condemned are confiscated But that 's not all the secular Princes or Lords are to be compelled if they will not do it otherwise and bound with a solemn Oath to endeavour to the utmost of their power utterly to destroy them all (r) Quod de terris suae jurisdictionis subjectis universos haereticos ab ecclesia denotatos bona fide pro viribus exterminare studeant They are to labour in good earnest with all their might to root them all out And further if any temporal Lord proceed not to such ruining execution within a year (s) Ut tunc ipse vasallos ab ejus fidelitate denunciet absolutos terram exponat Catholicis occupandam qui eam exterminatis haereticis sine ulla contradictione possideant The Pope is to absolve those that are under him from their allegiance the Land is to be seized on by Catholicks who having exterminated the Hereticks are to possess it without control Here it is plain that by the highest Authority the Roman Church pretends to that which is no less with them than Divine the Papists are bound to destroy all whom they count Hereticks and to take possession of their Estates And this Barbarous decree which has so much force with them (t) Consiliorum decreta sunt spiritus sancti oracula Staplet Relect. contr 6. q. 3. as the word of God with any was put in excution in the dayes of that very Pope For he imployed Armies against the Albigenses the Predecessors of the Protestants in France who destroyed above (*) Vid. Jo. Paul Perin de Albigen Two hundred thousand in the space of some moneths It was executed in the age before this in France (u) Thuanus Hist l. 53. where so many Thousands were treacherously and cruelly Murdered that the channels run down with blood into the River and this magnified as a glorious action honoured with a Triumph at Rome and the unparallel'd Butchers rewarded with his Holiness blessing We have known it executed in our dayes upon some Hundred thousands of the Protestants in Ireland where that bloody Tragedy was acted by the Popes excitement and concurrence just according to the tenor of that decree the Irish Papists indeavouring with all their might utterly to destroy all the Protestants that their Estates and the whole Land might be in the possession of Roman-Catholicks And in all Countreys about us where ever they have been powerful enough or but thought themselves so they have effected or attempted it Such outrages were and are to be committed by warrant of the Romish Doctrine They are bound to act thus by all the Authority of that Church which not only injoyns this by her decrees but gives all incouragement thereto such Robberies and Butcheries are vertuous yea meritorious acts Those that will ingage therein to the utmost as their Church requires are assured by the Pope (x) Qui-ad haeriticorum exterminium se accinxerint illa gaudeant indulgentia â—illoque privilegio sint muniti quod accedentibus in terrae sanctae subsidium concedituâ— p. â—48 ibid. p. 967. of those indulgences and priviledges which were granted to the Adventurers for the recovery of the holy Land and these are expressed in an Appendix to that Council to be full pardon of all their sins here and a greater measure of glory hereafter At no less rate do they value the blood and utter destruction of such as we whom they count Hereticks with such and no less hopes do they ingage all Papists to indeavour as far as is possible our utter extermination 'T is true there are good natur'd persons amongst them as there are amongst other sorts of men and such as have a great aversation to such Barbarous cruelty but their Religion tempts them to it not only with hopes of Hereticks Estates but of the greatest rewards that can be propounded yea and forces them to it even beyond their inclination with threatnings of the most dreadful import expressed in that Decree which signifies also that they must act at this rate of inhumanity (y) Etiam sicut reputari cupiunt haberi fideles p. 948. if they will be counted Christians and must not expect to pass for faithful Romanists unless they will act as monsters But if it be their duty as they are Roman-Catholicks and they bound in Conscience as far as their Religion and all the power of it can bind them to destroy the Protestants amongst whom they live and seize upon what they have why do they not fall to work and make an end of us that all may be their own how is it that they live quietly and peaceably in this and some other places to satisfie us here they use plain dealing though we must not alwayes expect it and tell us in express terms they do it not merely because they have not power to do it Though the Church have made it their duty to destroy Protestants yet when they are not strong enough to do it and where the attempting of it because they are a weaker party would indanger them there they are excused they may wait the happy hour till they have sufficient power to shew their obedience to the Church in executing her exterminating decrees without apparent hazard of their own interest So Bannes a Dominican determines (z) Sequitur primo excusandos esse Anglicanos Saxonicos fideles qui non se eximunt a potestate superiorum nec bellum contra eos gerunt
to death in the Mass as he was upon the Cross it is the same death for the substance that he dyes by the Priest as he dyed by the Jews and Romans only with some difference in the manner of it It was a bloody death on the Cross it is an unbloody death in the Mass but he is put to death in both and why should they say it is an unbloody death that he suffers by the Priest since they profess that his blood is there shed and poured forth (r) The blood is shed in the Mass but it is shed unbloodily Hart in Rainold Confer p. 618. the very same blood that was shed on the Cross This may seem strange and they cross themselves here sometimes but nothing must seem strange in the Mass for it is such a heap of absurdities and contradictions as never entred into the fancy of any men waking and in their wits nor could have entred into theirs if the spirit of delusion and the dream of infallibility had not distracted them However this they do and must hold whatever come of it that Christ is killed or destroyed in the Mass they are as much concerned to do it as all their Religion comes to for if Christ be not really destroyed in their Mass they have no true and proper Sacrifice and they tell us to prove us altogether irreligious (s) Nulla unquam fuit religio sine externo sacrificio Where there is no proper Sacrifice there can be no Religion Hereby it is very manifest that the Office of their Sacrificing Priest is daily to offer deadly violence to Christ That Christ in their Mass is every day slain or consumed and that the highest devotion of the Romish Church is the destruction of Christ 'T is true Christ is above their reach whatever they fancy they cannot offer him this violence or destroy him as they do his Members but they really design to destroy him when they would make a Sacrifice of him and they verily believe they do it and they do all which they count requisite in order to it and therefore they are destroyers of Christ by their own Rule (t) Voluntas faciendi ipsum factum sunt ejusdem malitiae to will to do it is tâ—e same wickedness with the doing of it The horridness of this will be more apparent if we take notice wherefore they will thus use Christ Their Church does it for the honour of the Saints and of his Mother In that part of the Mass which is called the Offertory they say we offer thee this Oblation in honour of the blessed Mary for ever a Virgin and of all the Apostles and of all the Saints that it may be for their honour (u) Ut illis praefieiat ad honorem So that they Sacrifice the Son to honour the Mother and destroy the Lord in honour of his Servants If one under the Law had but offered a Pigeon or the meanest Sacrifice in honour of Abraham or Moses it would have been counted a Crime worthy of the worst of deaths for this had been an advancing them into the place of God and yet to Sacrifice the Son of God that is to destroy him in honour of a Saint of the Popes making is a meritorious act Further the Priest will not venture on such a fact for nothing he has no reason to destroy Christ more than Judas had to betray him without some valuable consideration He is to Sacrifice Christ for the living and the dead For those that are dead if they have bequeathed any thing to the Church for this purpose or if their Friends hire him to do it For the living those that are frugal may be secretly mentioned in the momento of a common Mass for a piece of money but if any will go to the price of a particular Mass the Priest is ready to Sacrifice and destroy Christ on purpose for them in particular x pro incolumitate says the Missal pro bonis temporalibus says Innocent 3. In fine they do not offer this to Christ for spiritual respects only but for temporal and worldly advantages and such often as are of no great moment (*) pro qualibet necessitate says Lindanus Christ is to be destroyed for the health and safety of any body that is Catholick yea for the curing of a diseased Horse or the recovery of a sick Pigg or the preserving of their Fruit from frost or a blast They think it not amiss for such matters as these to make a Sacrifice of Christ and to destroy him it is done amongst them many thousand times daily And though the Apostle seems to make it a horrid crime for one to Crucifie again the Son of God yet for them to do that daily which for the substance of the thing is as destructive to Christ as the first Crucifying was is the principal part and office and the most eminent and meritorious act of their Religion These and such like are the prime Vertues of the Romanists most needful to be observed and practised And if things of such a quality be so far from being relinquished where shall we find any thing which God hath made a sin that can be thought worthy to be forsaken But I have stayed long enough here let me proceed to the next head propounded to satisfie us that they count it needless to forsake sin CHAP. VIII Crimes exceeding great and many are but slight and Venial faults by the Popish Doctrine SECT I. THere are innumerable Evils which they call Sins yet they count it not necessary in point of Salvation for any to forsake them but give all incouragement to live and die therein as sins for which they can never be condemned Such are those which they count Venial Let me shew you what sins they are which they reckon to be of such a quality and thereby it will be discerned how far their Doctrine gives warranty to sins of all sorts and to continue in the violation of all the Commands of God And this I shall do out of their own Authors such as are unexceptionable declining the Jesuits and thereby it will be more manifest how little reason there is to excuse the practical Doctrine received in their Church by charging their impious and licentious Principles upon the Society To hate God (y) Navar. Manual cap. 11. n. 18. if it be out of inadvertency and not with deliberation is no mortal sin and this they say of actual hatred for habitual enmity against God is with them no sin at all Acts of insidelity when they are led thereto by fear (z) Angel sum verb. sides n. 9. or worshipping an Idol such as not only we but themselves count Idols are no worse than Venial (*) Idem verb. solicitud Unbelief and perplexing distrustfulness of God about the things of this life is as innocent To present the body only before God in all religious Exercises in Prayer the Sacraments yea
they determine that there is no need of any act of love as was shew'd before 'T is no wonder therefore as to the second if they conclude it needless to act for God in what we do and make him alone our chief end In the Theory indeed they determine that an act is not good unless there be a concurrence of all conditions requisite thereto and that the end is the principal as much in morals as the form is in naturals so that without (l) Omne opus cujus finis est malus ipsum quoque malum est Navar. cap. 12. n. 30. a good end that act must be naught and no end good where God is not chief yet for practice they discharge them from any necessity to make God their principal end they conclude it lawful for a man to act (m) Sylvest Sum. v. Charitas n. 5. Navar. supra principally for his own advantage yea they account it but a Venial fault to do the best act principally for (n) Cajetan Sylvest Navar. supra The precept may be fully accomplished where the manner and end is naught Bonacin ibid. apud eum Aquinas Sotus Navar Medina alij a sinful end Now to avoid a Venial sin they hold it not necessary by any command of God and therefore it will not be needful to do any thing but principally for an end so far sinful and consequently unless the work can be good whose principal end is sin no good work at all will be necessary But it is a more wicked end which they openly avow when they design by what they do to merit grace and glory and make satisfaction to divine justice This is to make Christ a legg while they attempt his Crown and to offer him a Rush with an intent thereby to invest themselves in his prerogative They should shew us how it is possible such acts can be good before they pretend to account good works necessary Sect. 4. But though they find no necessity of good works by vertue of any divine Precept ordinarily yet they seem to make some when they will have the Priest to injoyn them for Penance and 't is like in this as in other cases they leave so little or nothing needful that God has commanded to render their own devices more necessary But good works being injoyned as penance become punishments and it signifies the Church of Rome is no good friend to good works when she counts or makes them punishments for punishment is properly evil to us and not to be done but suffered and thus she will have good works neither to be good nor to be done To be sure thus they cannot be done so as to be good or as becomes Christians to do them for he that must think it a suffering to do them does them with the spirit of a Slave not of a Christian But let us suppose they may be good works and well done too by way of Penance yet they are not necessary at all in their Church upon this account and so no way For first the Priest (o) Vid. Sylv. v. Confess 4. n. 2. Suarez 3. tom 4. disp 38. Sect. 6. n. 4. needs not injoyn good works as penance he may injoyn (p) Cajetan Navar. ibid. Sect. 3. n. 4. nothing at all if he pleases or some (q) D. Thomas Soto alii communiter ibid. Sect. 4. n. 4. slight thing that which is good for nothing or that which is worse or (r) Ibid. Sect. 6. n. 5. what the Confitent must have done if he had not sinned or he may dismiss him with this general (s) S. Thom. Paludanus Petr. Soto Navar. ibid. Sect. 6 n. 6. all the good thou doest or evil thou sufferest let it serve for satisfaction or he may commend something by way of (t) D. Thom. Paludanus Petr. Soto Victoria Ledesma ibid. Sect. 3. n. 2. Counsel without obliging him by any injunction or he may require him only to avoyd the sin he confesses for a while (u) Ibid. Sect. 6. n. 2. and when he shrives the woman that he has (x) Vid. Angel sum v. confess 5. n. 8. sin'd with it is like he may not prove very rigorous this way Or Secondly if he should injoyn this or any good work the Confitent (y) Scotus Gabriel Hostiensis Panormitan Medina Sylvester Armilla Navar in Suar. ibid. Sect. 7. n. 1. need not accept of or submit to it as many of their chief Doctors determine Or Thirdly if he do accept it yet he needs not perform it for all that he may be released by himself (z) Omittere satisfactionem est peccatum sed non mortale si desit contemptus quia non omittitur aliquid necessarium ad salutem Cajetan Sum. v. satisfact p. 520. To omit it will be but a small fault such as he needs not regard be the good work little or great if it be not out contempt Or (a) Communis sententia theologorum est possâ— paenitentem implere per alium satisfactionem sibi impositam Ita D. Thom. Paludanus Sylvester Alensis in Suar. ibid. Sect. 9. n. 1. another may undertake it and satisfie by suffering it for him Or a Priest may release him either he that injoyn'd it (b) Opinio communis est quam tenet Sylvest Angelus Navar Rosella Victoria Le desma Medina ibid. Sect. 10. n. 4. or another However Indulgences will do it effectually these serve to sweep away all good works all necessity of them on this account for ever This is their special use to release the Popes Subjects from the sad penalty of good works for though they have dealt hardly with good works to make them a punishment yet they will not deal so hardly with Catholicks as to have it necessary that they should be thus punished And therefore to ease them of this grievous suffering of doing good the Church in great tenderness has provided Indulgences which they may have at easie rates and thereby an acquittance discharging them from the good works they were to suffer And if the Priest should be so rigorous as to injoyn a Sinner to be doing good all his life or so impertinent as to require it for a hundred years he may meet with Indulgences will quit him of it every moment of his life and if he will many thousand years over and above And if this cannot be had unless he pay for it yet for his incouragement they teach (*) An sit melius dare argentum in Eleemosgnam quam dare in subsidium ad consequendam indulgentiam loquendo ex genere censeo esse melius subsidium facere ad consequendam indulgentium Idem ibid. disp 49. Sect. 5. n. 7. p. 633. that it is better to lay out his money for an Indulgence than in deeds of Charity So that there is no such goodness or necessity in the best work a Priest can injoyn but it may be better and more necessary to give the