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A34969 Exomologesis, or, A faithfull narration of the occaision and motives of the conversion unto Catholick unity of Hugh-Paulin de Cressy, lately Deane of Laghlin &c. in Ireland and Prebend of Windsore in England now a second time printed with additions and explications by the same author who now calls himself B. Serenus Cressy, religious priest of the holy order of S. Benedict in the convent of S. Gregory in Doway. Cressy, Serenus, 1605-1674.; Pearson, John, 1613-1686.; Falkland, Lucius Cary, Viscount, 1610?-1643. Discourse of infallibility. 1653 (1653) Wing C6895; ESTC R29283 288,178 694

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not true because they find no satisfaction in the discourses and answers which the Schoole-writers endeavour to give to a thousand foolish objections which they conjute up out of Aristotles Philosophy against this Mystery to be adored and trembled at It is onely Scripture testimonies of Fa●hers Ecclesiasticall Tradition Generall Councells and the Profession of the present Catholique Church which are the proper Judges of this controversie and whose authority when it is employed as it ought will assert this divine truth of the Reality of Christs presence by way of conversion in the blessed Sacrament to the confusion of all Novelties and all Blasphemies of Heretiques The antient both Latin and Grecian Fathers who certainly were of wits as subtill and pierceing as any that have succeeded them yet never thought upon such nice enquiries as now every young Philosopher can prattle of and therefore I professe since I am far from finding any obligation at all lying upon me to the contrary yea since the Councell of Trent Sess. 13. c. I. hath defined this point in the language of Antiquity and not of the Schools saying that Christ is present in the Sacrament Sacramentaliter i. e. mysteriously inexplicably I will never endeavour to answer any Philosophicall arguments any other way then with such words as these of S. John Damascene The Bread and Wine is changed into the Body and Blood of our Lord but this after an unsearchable manner For of this matter we know no further but only that the word of God is true and efficacious and omnipotent Damasc. de Orthod Fide lib. 4. cap. 14. Of the Adoration of our Lord Jesus Christ present in the holy Eucharist 9● Let us now consider to what the church obliges all Catholiques in this point If any one saith the Councell of Trent Sess. 13. Can. 6. saith that Jesus Christ the only Son of God ought not to be adored with the exteriour worship of Latria it self in the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist and that for that end it ought not to be proposed publikely to the people to be adored and that those who adore him are Idolaters let him be Ana●hema Which worship of Latria is not given to the outward Symbolls of the Eucharist but only to Jesus Christ himself there present A certaine degree of respect even by the confession of the Calvinists is due to all outward instruments of Religion as to Chalices to the books of Scripture to the water of Baptisme and to the Species of Bread and Wine in the Holy Eucharist And Catholiques allow no more But the true object which a Catholique adores with this sublime act of adoration or Latria is in the case in hand Jesus Christ himself who is to be adored every where wheresoever he is present and therefore likewise in the holy Eucharist in the which the Catholique church knows and acknowledgeth no other substance as the Calvinists desire to impose on them but only Jesus Christ. And if they be Idolaters for this the Lutherans are so too who teach the same doctrine though they expresse themselves in the point of the Reall Presence after another new-invented manner yet notwithstanding the Calvinists when their worldly interests obliged them could be content to comunicate with the Lutherans and could swallow their pretended Idolatry but out of fear and hatred of Catholique union make even the church her self a prejudice against her doctrine 10. For mine own part whilest I was a Protestant I professe I could never answer to mine own reason why we should condemn the worshipping of Christ whom we professed to be present in very truth without figures or fancies If he had not been there after a peculiar Sacramentall manner I might lawfully notwithstanding have worshipped him there because I may and ought to worship him every where as being God omnipresent yea though his humane nature be locally present only at the right hand of the Father in glory yet I may worship the man Jesus Christ every where because that person which is God and Man is every where present viz. according to his divine not humane nature and yet it seems when a new acc●ssion of another kind of Sacramentall truly reall presence is added to the former though I acknowledge this later presence to be as reall as the former I must be forbidden to expresse that I acknowledge and believe it any other way then by saying with my lips that I do so I must then deny unto him in that place at his owne table and altar and at that time whilest are celebrated those mysteries adorable even to Angells themselves that worship and respect which I would have given him at mine own table or whilest I was doing the ordinary works of my calling But it will be said perhaps you are not forbidden to worship him but you must not worship him as present there And why for Gods sake Bid me rather believe that he is not after an epseciall manner present But this is tyranny and injustice in the highest degree to command me to believe that he is as truly though after another manner present there as at the right hand of his Father and at the same time to command me by my works to belye my belief No no. Quàm magis ingenuè Peribonius How much more ingenuous are the Socinians then all other Sects for whereas the rest would gladly pretend Antiquity and take much unprofitable pains to make a Father now and then speak a word in their favour The Socinians instead of puzling themselves to untye cut asunder all such knots and difficulties they with an impudent resolutenesse break through all obstacles Let the antient church determine what it please and let the antient Fathers agree to speak as they have a mind if what is spoken and decreed either suit not with what they fancy that the Holy Ghost does mean or naturall reason being Judge ought to mean or if the Holy Ghost in their opinions hath been silent in it without more a●o they presently reject and condemn it upon which grounds they strein not to alter all the language almost of the church they know no such thing as a Sacrament they acknowledge no promises to nor no ●ffects of such ceremonious actions as the church and all Christians call Sacraments they scoffe at the Reall Presence and abominate the adoration of Christ in his Mysteries Let S. Ambrose de Sp. 5. l. 3. say By his footstool is meant the earth and by the earth the body of Christ which every day we adore in the mysteries and which the Apostles adored in our Lord Jesus Let S. Augustine in Psa. 48. say For he took earth from earth both because be conversed here in very flesh and gave us likewise very flesh to eat for our salvation Now no man eats that flesh but that he adores it first And thus a way is found how the Lords footstoole is adored And again Epist 120. expounding that of the Psalmist All
Peter to whom our Lord after his Resurrection consigned the feeding of his Sheep to the present Episcopaecy retains me there Lastly the very name of Catholique retaines me there which not without cause this Church onely among so many and so great Heresies hath in such sort maintained that when a stranger demands Where men meet to communicate with the Catholike Church there is not any one Heretike ha's the confidence to direct him to his Temple or house S. AUGUST de Unit. Eccles. c. 19. I Suppose if there were extant any wise man to whom our Lord Jesus Christ had afforded his testimony and if he were consulted with by us concerning this question we should by no means doubt to do that which he should determine and this left we should be judged to oppose our selves not so much to him as to the Lord Jesus Christ by whose tectimony he was commended Now Christ ha's afforded a testimony to his Church THE PREFACE 1. I Had no intention at all to write much lesse to give to publike view this account of the Reasons and Motives of my relinquishing Error and Schism and rejoyning my self to Catholike Vnity Not that I preferred mine own ease before the endeavouring to contribute though in the smallest degree to the spirituall good of others But me thought a writing of such a nature would seem to argue that I judged my self a person of such consideration as that men would expect from my hands such an account A conceit which truly I never entertained neither had I any reason so to do 2. Yea afterward when some men I am confident without any visible grounds either from my conversation in times past or late proceedings did assume to themselves the authority or rather licence to judge of my inward thoughts and intentions charging me with worldly ambition discontent or melancholy and attributing to such unworthy Principles that change which was only the effect of Divine goodnesse and mercy implored with earnest and continuall prayers Yet other mens injustice to me did not make me injust to my self so far as to think that that could qualifie me so as to be fit to appear in publike All the effect it had upon me was in regard of my self a secret joy to suffer any thing for so blessed a cause as Catholique Unity and in regard of the authors of such aspersions a secret griefe and compassion that they would needs declare themselves ill-willers to me for endeavouring without any others hinderance or losse to save mine own Soule or that resolving to be so injust they would make choice of such imputations which though they had in themselvs been true yet no man could believe them to have been competent accusers and informers of thoughts known only to almighty God 3. But what neither the just contempt and disesteem which I had of my self would permit nor the unjust calumniations of others could extort from me a command intimated from certain vertuous worthy persons Superiours of the Holy Order of the Carthusians whom I thought my self in some sort obliged to obey though as yet my Superiours only in desire and reverence gave me the assurance to adventure upon They judging it requisite that I should give some proof both of the matute advice and also of the reasonablenesse of my change made me consider my self only as fit to obey them without altering in any degree the mean esteem I had of my self And the same persons advising the publication of what I wrote have thereby made me by this in genuous declaration of what I knew of my self almost against my will to answer the aspersions which those that I am sure knew me not so well haue published 4. Now I do not pretend by this Narration to deprive them of their liberty of calumniating me still since they may if they please say linguam nostram magnisicabimus labia nostra â nobis sunt quis n●ster Dominus est Psa. 11. 5. After this profession of the occasion and progresse of my enquiry and resolution in point of Religion which I here make in the presence of God and before the world protesting that I do my self believe this history of my self which I now publish I assure them I shall not put my self to the trouble of saying any more for mine owne vindication in this respect Neither here do I answer their calumnies any other way then by discovering my self naked to my very thoughts 5. They may hereafter if they please continue to traduce me more probably and ingenuously for no doubt I shall in this writing give them many advantages against my self yea I must tell them my intention was to do them this pleasure and for that reason I called this Narration an Exomologesis and that with reflection upon severall notions of that word For first it is a publike Confession and that not onely of my former errours and Schism but withall joyn'd with a discovery of no doubt many imperfections in searching after truth during the twi-light of my doubtings and uncertainties and many weaknesses in defending the truth after I had found it So that they have confitentem reum and such an one as wil be glad to have discovered unto him whatsoever is disproveable in this Treatise to the end that when he is convinced he may satisfie for them also Besides this is called an Exomologesis in as much as it is intended to be a publike Confession or Thanks-giving a Tabula votiva representing to the world the tempests of Schisme and Heresie from which I could not have escaped the utmost danger of shipwrack had not almighty God the lover of souls provided a secure haven for me in the Catholike Church And therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I give thee thanks O Father Lord of heaven and earth for that thou hast hidden these mercies from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Even so Lord for such was thy good pleasure HOSANNA IN EXCELSIS The first Section Conteining an Historicall Narration of the Authors occasion of doubting and method in searching satisfaction CHAP. I. The occasion of my departure out of England Bloody commotions of Calvinists there The horriblenesse and strangenesse of them 1. IT was in the moneth of June in the yeare of our Lord 1644. that those most unnaturall bloody dissentions in Great-Brittaine universally spread through all the Provinces of that unhappy Nation constrained me not so much to avoid my personall danger as out of the horrour to be a spectatour of such inhumane Tragedies as were every where daily acted to forsa●e my native countrey to recreate my selfe with a voluntary exile to follow the conduct of the mercifull hand of God which provided for me not only an opportunity convenience of subsisting in forrein countrys but likewise means of diverting in som measure my mind from the sad remembrance of the miseries I left behind me and by a retreit into places lesse frequented
hath upon Psalm 56. and in his 166. Epistle ad Donat and on 1. Ep. of S. John Tract 2. c. And again in Psal. 70. The Christian world is promised and this is believed by them This promise is fulfilled and it is contradicted by them And againe If the church shall not continue here on earth even to the end of the world to whom did our Lord say Behold I am with you even to the end of the world And again de Bapt. con Don. l. 3 If from the time of S. Cyprian the church perished from whence did Donatus appeare out of what earth did he bud out of what See did he arise from what heaven did he fall And again cont Jul l. 5. If by those holy Priests of God and famous Doctors Irenaeus Cyprian Rheticius Olympius Hilary Ambrose Gregory Basile John Chrysostome Innocent and Hierome the Manicheans have violated and corrupted the Church Tell me Julian who was it that brought thee forth was it a chast Matron or a Harlot who in her travelling brought thee forth by the wombe of spirituall Grace into that light which thou hast forsaken I willingly omit infinite other passages especially out of S. Augustine to the same purpose because even Protestants generally do not question the substance of that truth herein contained CHAP. LII Application of these proofes to the advantage of the Romane Catholique Church and against Protestants c. 1. THe cause therefore is clear in the generall Thesis that the Fathers opinion was that by vertue of Christs expresse promises his church was to continue visible and distinguishable from all other unlawfull congregations to the worlds end This I do not find denied by the English Protestants I mean neither that this was the sense of the Fathers nor that this sense was ture 2. The great controversie therefore is in the Hypothesis or application of the generall Thesis viz. whether that such conclusions as the Fathers deduce from the visibility of the Catholique church in their dayes may rationally be inferred from the Roman Catholique church visible in these dayes For example that it is unlawfull upon any pretence of errors or abuses in practise to separate from the externall communion of that church which now calls it selfe the Catholique Church which is only the Roman for the Grecian churches though they challenge the title of Catholique Churches that is true members of the Catholique yet I doe not find that they make an association to their externall communion a necessary condition to all Christians 3. The English Protestants say no against all Roman Catholiques who unanimously affirm that since such discourses of the Fathers were grounded upon Christs promises to his church which were to be effectuall to the end of the world that therefore they are as fitly and necessarily to be applied to the present as to the antient Catholike church and that no other church but that in communion with the Roman can make any valuable or legitimate pretentions to that title Though the truth is if it be to be granted that there is any visible Catholique church at all whose externall communion is necessary the Protestants are inexcuseably culpable since they neither would nor could upon their grounds communicate with any church in the world that was in being when Luther began his Apostacy 4. In this controversie therefore upon these following considerations and grounds I fully satisfied my self that the plea of Roman Catholiques was just and reasonable For ● Though English Protestants deny the Roman church to be the Catholique church cum Emphase yet they acknowledge her to be a true member at least of the Catholique church being forced hereto for their own interest to justifie the lawfulnesse of their Ordinations c. And this acknowledgement alone is sufficient to condemne them for their separation as guilty of Schisme since he who separates from an acknowledged true member of the Catholique church doth consequently separate from the Catholique church 5. Secondly they acknowledge that the whole body of the present Catholique church enjoyes the same priviledges and authority that it did in the times of the antient Fathers that a Schisme from it is as pernicious as antiently that a truly Generall Councell now is as obliging and unappealable from as heretofore And upon these grounds they will condemn themselves since it is apparent that if the Easterne churches were assumed together with the Western to make up the full body of the Catholique most of the opinions and pretended errours upon which they ground the lawfulnesse and necessity of their separation will appear to be the doctrines of the church called Catholique even in their sense as e. g. acknowledging the blessed Sacrament to be a proper Sacrifice propitiatory for quick and dead the Reall Presence per modum transmutationis Prayer for Dead and Purgatory Invocation of S●ines Veneration of Images c. And therefore if all the four Patriarches had met at the Councell of Trent they had Infallibly concur'd in condemning the Protestants as Heretiques in these points and their separation upon such grounds is Schisme properly so called 6. Thirdly it appeared evidently to me that those communions and congregations of Christians which acknowledge subjection to the Pope could only rightfully challenge the name of the Catholique church For 1. I took it for granted that that which was called the Catholike church after the times of the four first Generall Councells when the A●●ans Photinians Macedonians Nestorians Eurychians c. were anathematized was indeed the onely tru● Catholique church by which account the Abyssine churches as being at least antiently Eutychians and severall Eastern churches as Nestorians Jacobi●es c. were and are to be excluded from that denomination which yet the Protestants now although they dare not communicate with them would admit into the body of the church but most unreasonably for if the Abyssines continue yet Eutychians the Protestants of England who receive the foure first Generall Councells do thereby acknowledge them to be Heretiques if they have quitted Eutychianisme and really adjoyned themselves to the Roman church according to severall Embassies mentioned by Damianus à Goes c. then Protestants will find it so much more to their disadvantage to argue any thing from the Abyssine churches 2. I could observe nothing which could make me doubt that that which was called the Catholique church from the four first Generall Councells to S. Gregories the Greats dayes inclusivè was indeed so For if in S. Gregories dayes there was a Catholique church is Protestants grant there was then that which was in communion and subjection to him was only it since none that I know pretend to allow that title to any congregation divided from him Now in the church of S. Gregories time it is apparent that in a manner all points of Doctrine now by Protestants called errours and causes of their separation were universally acknowledged as Catholique doctrines as I shewed before by a joynt confession