Selected quad for the lemma: work_n
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A34032
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A modest and true account of the chief points in controversie between the Roman Catholics and the Protestants together with some considerations upon the sermons of a divine of the Church of England / by N.C.
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Nary, Cornelius, 1660-1738.; Colson, Nicholas.
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1696
(1696)
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Wing C5422; ESTC R35598
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162,211
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316
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1 Chron. 29.20 Adorate Scabellum podum ejus Psal 99. Adore ye His Footstool Here is Adoration with a Witness and all to one given to meer Creatures and tho' in all these Phrases the very Term is used in the Hebrew and Greek as well as in the Latin which the Scripture uses to express the Supream Adoration given to the true God yet no Man ever said that these Creatures ought to be ador'd in the strict Propriety of Adoration or Supream Worship but the Sense is that they ought to be worship'd with the Honor and Respect that is due to Them In like manner tho' we say in Scripture Language Crucem Adoramus we do not mean nor intend to give the Cross any other Worship than that which is due to a Type or Figure which represents our Saviour and Redeemer to us Thus much concerning this Ingenious Man's Exceptions to Images I now come to Dr. Tillotson's Objections And here his Difficulties are neither great nor many in number Two things only I observe in his Sermons that deserve some consideration The first that worshiping of Images is as point blank against the Second He shou'd have said the First Commandment Vol. 2. pag. 7â— as a deliberate and malicious killing of a Man is against the Sixth Fifth wou'd have been more true The Second 〈…〉 edit post ob pag. 291. That to secure the People from discerning our guilt in this matter we are put upon that shameful shift as he is pleas'd to term it of leaving out the Second Commandment in our common Catechisms and Manuals lest the People seeing so plain a Law of God against so common a Practice of our Church shou'd upon that discovery have broken off from us As to the First I answer If He means by Worship to give the Supream Worship and Adoration to Images which is dâ—o only to God he is very much in the right and I hope shall never be contradicted by me But if He understands by Worship to give Images that Honor and Respect which is due to Things that represent Jesus Christ and His Saints he is contradicted by Scripture by all Antiquity and even by his own Church as well as by us Now that we give Images no other Worship than the latter or that the Decrees of our Church enjoin no more I think I have already sufficiently prov'd Touching the Second I answer that we never left out any of God's Commandments either in Catechism or Manual and that that which he says is left out which yet is not the Second Commandment but part of the First is to be found in hundreds of Manuals and Catechisms in England it self And at this Time I have upon my Table a Manual and Catechism wherein all He says we left out are contain'd The first bears this Title a Manual of Prayers and Christian Devotions the later An Abridgment of Christian Doctrine with Proofs out of Scripture c. The first Edition printed Anno. 1649. Now a Man that can dispense with his Conscience and honor so far as to publish from Press and Pulpit untruths so easily discover'd what Paradox may not he undertake to maintain 'T is true there are some Manuals and Catechisms in which the Ten Commandments are comprehended as it were in so many Verses that Children and People of weak Capacity may learn them with more case But in no Manual or Catechism that pretends to give the Commandments was ever the Second Commandment left out That which he calls the Second Commandment viz. Thou shalt not Make to thy Self any graven Image c. is undoubtedly part of the First only added to inculcate to a Gross Ignorant People what they were to avoid in consequence of the One God which the First Commandment obliges them to have For 't is evident that in these Words Thou shalt have no other Gods but me is necessarily imply'd that they shou'd not make to themselves any Graven Images or Idols to Worship them which to do were to have other Gods And therefore these two Negatives make but one Commandment Unless the Dr. will have it that it is a distinct Commandment from the first because it begins a Verse or contains some Words which are not express'd in the first But he may please to consider that the Law of Moses was extant at least a Thousand Years before it was digested into Verses or that any Points were added to it during which Time there was nothing to distinguish one Commandment from an other but the very Reason and Nature of the things commanded and then since this which the Dr. wou'd have to be the Second Commandment is altogether of the same Nature with the First and prohibits nothing but what the First prohibits namely the having or worshiping more than one God we have all the Reason in the World to conclude that it is but One and the same Commandment with the First And thus all our Ancestors and all the Ancient's Comments upon this Chapter of Moses at least as many as I have seen understood it and even Martin Luther in those Books which he wrote against the Church of Rome makes but one Commandment of the Doctor 's First and Second But if He will have it that it is a distinct Commandment because it has a distinct prohibition then it will follow that we must have as many Commandments as we have distinct Prohibitions in that Chapter besides the affirmative Precepts and then we shall have 13 or 14 Commandments at least Thou shalt not make to thy Self any graven Image must be the Second thou shalt not how down to them the Third thou shalt not take the Name of thy Lord thy God in vain the Fourth remember to keep holy the Sabbath Day the Fifth thou shalt do no manner of Work the Sixth and so on But as the Dr. wou'd not I suppose allow of this distribution so He may please to give us leave to stick to the Old Ten Commandments in the same order manner we receiv'd them from our Ancestors of Blessed Memory CHAP. IX Of Purgatory WHat we hold as of Faith concerning this Point is thus declar'd by the Council of Trent That there is a Purgatory and that the Souls there detain'd are help'd by the Prayers of the Faithful but especially by the acceptable Sacrifice of the Mass Here the Council do's not determine what sort of Place Purgatory is or what manner of Pain Souls endure in it nor whether they are purg'd by material Fire or by other Torments or Anguishes of Mind but is content to declare with the Ancient Fathers that there is a Place wherein Souls departed are detain'd without entering upon curious need less Questions concerning the Manner or Duration of the Pains they there suffer In handling therefore this Argument I shall endeavour to tred in the Steps of the Ancient Fathers and follow the Pattern of this Council waving all superfluous and needless Questions relating to this Subject
them in the venerable and dreadful Mysteries For shame Doctor Away with such unchristian Scandals and do not put us upon exposing your Credit and Character any farther But perhaps the Legacies left for the bireing of Priests as he odly phrases it to say Mass for the delivery of Souls out of the place of Torments will mend the matter Indeed if the Priests were allow'd to determin matters of Faith the thing comming from the Doctor wou'd not appear altogether so unreasonable for considering how very remarkable his Charity is to Priests I do not question He wou'd judge they wou'd deal well for themselves had they but the handling of these matters But it is no less evident that no simple Priest has ever yet had any Vote in declaring matters of Faith than that no other is hired as He calls it or will receive any Money for saying Masses for the Living or the Dead but the poorer or more indigent sort of Priests who have not a sufficient Patrimony or Maintenance to subsist without it And the matter being undeniably so where is the Conscience in saying that the Councils and Prelates of the Church shou'd possess the People with the fear of Purgatory only to oblige them to hire some indigent Priests to say Mass for their Souls But the Scandal is so gross and palpable that the best answer I can make it is to contemn it The Doctor has some two or three Objections more upon this Subject but they are either solv'd in the Proofs brought for this Point or coincident with those Objections already spoken to or else have no particular Difficulty And so I take leave of him for this Time CHAP. X. Of Indulgences THE Power of Indulgences is founded in the Power of the Keys wherewith Jesus Christ was pleas'd to intrust the Pastors and Governours of the Church by which Emblem of Keys is denoted the Power of opening and shutting the Kingdom of Heaven of letting in and keeping out as Christians shall be found worthy of the one or the other This Power is promis'd to Saint Peter in a special Manner and in his Person to all his lawful Successors in these Words I say unto thee that thou art Peterâ— i. e. a Rock and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it And I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven Mat. 16.18.19 Again the Promise of binding and loosing is made in another Place to all the Apostles in the same Words Verily I say unto you whatsoever ye bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven And whatsoever ye loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven Matt. 18.18 And Christ a little before his Ascension actually confer'd this power upon them and told them wherein it consists Receive ye the Holy-Ghost whosoever Sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whosoever Sins ye retain they are retain'd Joa 20.22 23. So that the Power of the Keys consists in remitting of Sins and retaining them that is in loosing Men from those Bands of Iniquity wherewith they tye themselves and in binding them up or keeping them bound till they have satisfied for their Sins according to the Rules prescrib'd for that purpose In a Word in opening the Gates of the Kingdom of Heaven and letting some in and in shutting the same and excluding others as they shall be found to have deserv'd it But whereas our Blessed Saviour did not intend that the Apostles and their Successors shou'd bind Sinners so as finally to exclude them from the Kingdom of Heaven but only to keep them under Discipline for a Time till they had fulfill'd the Terms of the Covenant upon which he offers them Salvation which consists in Obedience to His Laws in Repentance and Satisfaction for their Sins and Amendment of Life for the Time to come so the Church in all Ages never retain'd the Sins of Men for any other End than to keep them in a wholesome and saving Discipline till by penitential and laborious Works they had given Marks of their Sorrow and Repentance in Proportion to the Greatness of their Sins And as the Apostles and their Successors are commission'd by Christ to retain Sins so likewise are they to loose them And therefore may remit abate or alter these penitential and laborious Works as their Prudence and Wisdom shall judge it most expedient Now Indulgence is nothing else but a Relaxation or Remission of some part of or all these penitential Works to which a Sinner is lyable by the Canons of the Church which Remission is granted by the Pastors but especially by the Chief Pastor of the Church upon some weighty Considerations for the greater Benefit and Advantage of the Faithful in general Which that we may the better understand it will be requisite to lay open some part of the Discipline of the Primitive Church with Respect to this Matter We have 50 Canons that go under the Name of the Apostles which if not of them are undoubtedly of some Apostolical Bishops of the first or second Age their Use and Authority being very great since that Time We have likewise the Canons of several Provincial Councils of the third and fourth Age which have been in great Esteem and Veneration among the Ancients and for the pure and wholesome Discipline contain'd in them have been inserted in the Codex Canonum or Book of Canons of the Vniversal Church as the Ancient Writers term it These Canons among other Matters of Discipline prescribe the different Penances which were to be impos'd upon Sinners in proportion to the greatness of their Sins whence came the Name of Penitential Canons so famous in Antiquity Some Canons prescribe seven Years Penance to certain Sins others eight Years to other sins some prescribe ten Years some fifteen some to the Hour of Death Some Penitents by order of these Canons fasted three Days every Week during the Time of their Penance using no other Sustenance during that Time but Bread and Water others stood cover'd with Sackcloath at the Church Doors sub dio in the open Air on Sundays and Festivals while their Penance lasted others stood within Doors cloathed in the same Raiment weeping and lamenting their sins some lay prostrate upon the Floor begging and praying their Brethren to intercede for them others were admitted to hear divine Service in the Weeds of Penitents after they had gone thro' the foremention'd Stations whence the Names of Hyemantes Flentes Prostrati Audientes so often mention'd in the Canons Now these Rigorous Penances very Rigorous I am sure they wou'd appear in our Days or Exomologeses as some of the Fathers call them were sometimes abated and remitted partly upon Account of the Fervor of the Penitents who before they had gone thro' all their Stations gave such Marks of sincere