Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A67644
|
A defence of the doctrin and holy rites of the Roman Catholic Church from the calumnies and cavils of Dr. Burnet's Mystery of iniquity unveiled wherein is shewed the conformity of the present Catholic Church with that of the purest times, pagan idolatry truly stated, the imputation of it clearly confuted, and reasons are given why Catholics avoid the Reformation : with a postscript to Dr. R. Cudworth / by J. Warner of the Soc. of Jesus.
|
Warner, John, 1628-1692.
|
1688
(1688)
|
Wing W907; ESTC R38946
|
162,881
|
338
|
strike good Purposes deeper into our Hearts why should it be misliked The wiser of your Brethren in France acknowledge and bewail the want of them so will you if you consider it well Catholics have an unquestionable Ordination for if we have none yours must fall to the ground you having received yours from us Yours is not only questionable but questioned actually and with seeming probability denied by Catholics 1. For want of a due Minister a Bishop 2. For want of due Matter and Form. 3. For want of due Intention for your Bishops owning no Sacrifice of the new Law could not intend to confer a Power to offer Sacrifice which is essential to Priesthood They were confirmed in their opinions of your want of Ordination by your owning Communion with those Reformed Churches in France and Holland which have no lawful Ordination according to your Principles your directing yours to their Churches advising them to receive the Sacraments from them and admitting those Ministers to the Ministry among you without any new Ordination This is confirmed by the constant Practice of the Church of Rome to Ordain all such Ministers of the Church of England as being admitted to the Communion of the Catholic Church desire to enter into Holy Orders She the Church of Rome condemns Re-ordination as a Sacrilege and never practised it Hence the Priests of the Greek Armenian and Cophtic Communion renouncing their several Errors are admitted to Officiate without any new Imposition of Hands in the Church of Rome because Orders are validly conferred in those several Churches The Protestants would be in a like manner admitted had there not been a certainty from the beginning of the invalidity or nullity of their Orders To conclude they had those same Motives to continue in the Communion of the Catholic Church which S. Austin had which he relates lib. contra Epist Fundam cap. 4. Tenet consensio populorum gentium tenet auctoritas miraculis inchoata spe nutrita charitate aucta vetustate firmata tenet ab ipsa Sede Petri cui pascendas oves post Resurrectionem Dominus commendavit usque ad praesentem Episcopatum successio Sacerdotum Tenet postremò ipsum Catholicae nomen quod non sine causâ inter tam multas haereses sic ista Ecclesia sola obtinuit ut Apud vos autem ubi nihil horum est sola personat veritatis pollicitatio I am retained in the Catholic Church by the Consent of Nations by an Authority begun with Miracles nourished with Hope encreased by Charity established by Antiquity I am retained by a Succession of Priests beginning from S. Peter to whom our Lord after his Resurrection commended the Feeding of his Sheep until this present Pope Innocent XI Lastly I am retained by the very Name of Catholic which with great reason amongst so many Sects this Church alone obtains What have you to oppose against such strong Motives Scripture and the Gospel which if clear for you ought without doubt to be preferred before all those other Motives But they found this very Gospel this Scripture pronounce in their favor and against you This is my Body says the Scripture It is not Christ's Body say you The Commandments of God are not heavy says the Scripture The Commandments of God are impossible say you A reward is due to our good works says the Scripture No works of ours are meritorious nay the best are sins say you Faith without works is dead says the Scripture and you commend Faith so as to make all good works be neglected I grant some amongst you of late do not so crudely teach some of these Doctrins being ashamed of their deformity But you cannot deny but that they were taught by the first Reformers Which was sufficient to convince the World that Scripture gave no evident Verdict for them and make all afraid of their Reformation who had a care of their Souls CHAP. XXXVI Greater Exercise of Piety amongst Catholics than Protestants BAptism is given validly in both Churches but with this difference that we retain the ancient significant Ceremonies instituted by the Apostles or at least in Apostolical Times which may be proved out of Tertullian S. Cyprian S. Ambrose S. Jerom S. Austin and S. Denys you have retrenched all save only the Sign of the Cross And O judicium This is the Finger of God Exod. 8.19 the peevish refractory stubborn Children of your Church have wrangled with her about that and with the same Reasons as she had done with her Mother the Roman Catholic Church so visibly hath God meted unto you your measure Mat. 7.2 and punished you by your sin Sap. 11.17 As ours come to the use of Reason a new Sacrament expects them Confirmation which is the same mentioned so frequently in the Acts of giving the Holy Ghost by Imposition of the Apostles Hands Acts 8.17 which arms them against visible and invisible Enemies with the Spirit of Fortitude to profess their Faith. Of this Protestants We find in every Church Malachy's Prophecy fulfilled Mal. 1.11 a pure Offering made to God Mass said And in Catholic Countries Rich and Poor even the meanest Artisans and Laborers as Porters Water-carriers c. will steal so much time from their almost necessary Rest as to give half an hour to adore God and his Son Jesus in the Morning hoping they will bless their Labors all the Day the better for it O that you did but see with what Attention and Respect they assist at those Divine Mysteries how with their Knees on the Ground their Eyes on the Altar their Heart in Heaven they accompany the Priest and with him jointly make that Oblation to God with what Sentiments they adore Christ present and desire him to appease his Father's Wrath for their Sins by the Merits of his Passion and preserve them from offending anew that Day and to bless that Days Actions What do Protestants As soon as they are up they have their Hand in the Cupbord in the Cup their Nose Have any by mortal Sins shut against themselves the Gates of Heaven which the Passion of Christ opened they stir up a real Sorrow for that Offence of God purpose Amendment and with these Dispositions address themselves to a Priest with a Resolution to follow his Advice and perform what he shall enjoyn They discover to him all the wounds of their Soul their most secret and most reproachful Sins as to God himself whose Vicegerent he is being assured of an inviolable Secret and it is doubtless a perpetual Miracle that amongst so many thousands of Priests not one should be found faulty in this Point They hearken to his Advice accept his Penance to Fast Pray give Alms visit Prisoners serve Poor in Hospitals or the like according as the Condition of the Penitent permits Then receive Absolution in vertue of the Power given by our Saviour to Priests Joh. 20.23 The Effects of this Sacrament are Remission of Sins past avoiding others making Restitution if
A Defence of the DOCTRIN AND HOLY RITES OF THE Roman Catholic Church FROM THE Calumnies and Cavils OF Dr. BURNET'S Mystery of Iniquity Unveiled Wherein is shewed The Conformity of the present Catholic Church with that of the purest Times Pagan Idolatry truly stated The Imputation of it clearly confuted And Reasons are given why Catholics avoid the Reformation With a Postscript to Dr. R. Cudworth By J. Warner of the Soc. of Jesus The Second Edition LONDON Printed by Henry Hills Printer to the King 's Most Excellent Majesty for His Houshold and Chappel And are sold at his Printing-house on the Ditch-side in Black fryers 1688. The Preface IT is now more than Ten Years since this Book was first published and althô very few Copies of it could be then conveyed into England by reason of the trouble which gives occasion for this second Edition yet one came to Dr. Burnet's Hands who having read it said He was resolved to have nothing to do with its Author These words may proceed as well from a low esteem as otherwise so they did not alter my opinion of the Book it self which I leave to the Readers Judgment I called it Anti-Haman from some resemblance betwixt Haman the Macedonian in an Eastern Court and Dr. Burnet in this Western yet I could not foresee that the Paralel would go so far as since it has done even to set G. B. fair for compleating the last Scene of that Factious Stranger I follow in my Answer Dr. B. Step by Step and to shew that I neither alter his Sense nor dissemble the Strength of his Reasons I give them in his own words I studied to be as short as I could yet I hope I say enough to satisfie an indifferent Judgment only in some few places I have enlarged the thing there treated being in a new Dress and requiring it Such is the Accusation of Idolatry brought in against the Catholic Church by the old and new Iconoclasts but by Dr. Edw. Stillingfleet so much changed that it is quite another thing The first of our late Reformers accused us of using Images and giving to them a Religious Worship not unlike that which the Idolaters gave to their Idols yet they owned this difference that Images were reverenced only for Honor due to God or his Friends the Saints whereas the Pagans in them adored Dead Men or Living Devils that is False Gods. See Calvin l. 1. Inst c. 11. n. 9. Now Dr. E. S. will have the Pagan Jupiter to have been the True God the other Pagan Deities to have been either Names of his Attributes or Spirits Mediating berwixt the Supreme God and Men. An Error so new that I scarce believe any one Christian or Pagan before him ever held it and therefore it may be called the Stillingfleetian Error To confute it it is enough to read any of those Fathers who wrote against Pagans Tertullian or Justin Athenagoras or Minutius Lactantius S. Cyprian Arnobius or Julius Firmicus there being not one of all these but convinces this gross Error But he little expected to be confuted out of any of these by any Priest having assured that none of us read more than Bellarmin and Coccius Which is not the only rash Assertion found in his Works Were this Doctrin true the whole Debate betwixt the Primitive Christians and Pagans were at an end and the Cause yielded to the later For the Pagans said Jupiter was the True God The Christians said he was not the True God but was a Man Born Dead and Buried as other Men What says Dr. E S. Jupiter was the True God Here we see the whole Body of Christians of the four first Ages all the Martyrs the Doctors the Confessors and so many Apostolical Men condemned as denying the True God and that by one who professes himself a Christian and a Doctor of Divinity and Champion of the Reformed Church Those Primitive Christians went farther yet they not only denied him to be God but accused him of grievous Crimes of Adultery of Incest of Rebellion against his own Father and of other most unnatural Sins which are so many horrid Blasphemies if Jupiter be the True God. And which is yet worse all those Blessed Martyrs continued to their last Breath in them and sealed them with their Blood. What will what can Dr. St. say to this And what can a Christian Reader judge of him In fine this bold Assertion of E. S. and some Divines of the new Stamp is contrary to the Apostles who Planted Christian Religion opposit to Jupiter and all Pagan Deities contrary to the Glorious Martyrs who watered it with their Blood contrary to the Holy Fathers who defended it with their Writings contrary to the Primitive Church which professed it amidst the severest Persecutions and Torments contrary to God who confirmed it with Miracles and contrary to that same very Jupiter himself who owned himself to be a filthy seducing Devil What can the Learned World judge of so rash an Assertion What will he stop at who to oppose Popery will contradict all the first Ages of Christianity and God himself What credit can he deserve in obscurer Points of Divinity who in so clear a Matter of Fact dares contradict all Antiquity I hope he will open his Eyes acknowledge his Error and give Glory to God by renouncing that Arch-Devil otherwise it may be written on his Tomb Here lieth E. S. who owned no other God but the Pagan Jupiter This Epitaph will be very Honorable to the Church of England in which he makes so great a Figure There was published lately a Treatise in which the Idolatry as found in Scripture is very Learnedly and Solidly Explicated Some fancied a disagreement in our Sentiments because that Honorable Person says the Pagan Deities were Stars and I say they were Men. Yet in this there is no contradiction at all for he explicates that Idolatry which is mentioned in Scripture and reigned in the East and he adds that the Greeks to get the reputation of Antiquity to their Nation cut off the Heads of those Idols and set on them others of their Kings that is they retained the Gods but called them by the Names of such as have been famous amongst them either for Regal Power or for War or for inventing some useful Arts. And it is known to all the World that the chiefest Gods of the Romans were taken from the Greeks Now that I confined my self to the Idolatry of the Greeks and Romans is evident for Chap. 7. Sect. 3. pag. 52. I say Our only Dispute is about the Greeks and Romans whose Idolatry was banished the World by Christian Religion And Sect. 5. pag. 83. Our Dispute is not of the first Beginners and Planters of Idolatry but of those who lived at and since the time of Christ till Christianity prevailed But in my Revision of D. M. his Second Letter pag. 122. I distinguish these two sorts of Idolatry and give the precedency in Time