mouths possessed me in the beginning of his waies I was set up from everlasting when he prepared the Heavens I was there c. and so all along They scruple not o Bust Marial Serm. de Nomin Mariae to say of her what God Almighty saies of himself Malach. 1.11 From the rising up of the Sun unto the going down of the same my Name shall be great among the Gentils And that of Christ Matth. 28.18 * Novarin Vmbra Virgin l. 4. excurs 122. n. 1149. All power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth and what John the Baptist saies p Antonin 4. part tit 15. c. 6. sect 3. of her Fulness have all received c. namely q Salazar Prov. c. 3. v. 29. n. 200. the Sinner Pardon the Righteous Grace the Angels joy and the whole Trinity Glory And therefore r Idiot Contempl. 1. say they as blasphemously God hath highly exalted her and given her a name above all names that in her name all knees should bow c. Phil. 2.9 10. And after the same rate what God saies of his only begotten Son Heb. 1.6 Let s Vitis Florig Lect. 27. all the Angels of God worship her and let Men boldly come unto the Throne of Grace from him to her that we may obtain Mercy and find Grace to help us in time of need Hebr. 4.16 It were endless to rehearse all 4. Fourthly They allow her a whole Psalter * Vid. Psalter S. Bondvent as the Church doth to God Almighty And whatever David could say in the Highest strein of his Zeal towards the magnifying of Gods Glory or the imploring of his Mercy or the expressing his Faith in him Gods name being out and that of the Virgin in they both transfer and improve it towards the magnifying of this Lady For Example in the first Psalm instead of Blessed be the Man c. it begins thus Blessed be the Man that loves thy name O Virgin Mary Thy mercy shall comfort his Soul c. The second Why do the Heathen c hath it thus Why do our Enemies imagine vain things against us Thy right hand O Mother of God shall protect us Come ye to her all ye that Travel and are heavy laden and you shall find rest for your Souls c. The fourth thus When I did call thou O Lady heardest me Thou wert pleased to remember me out of thy high Throne for thy mercy is on all them that call upon thy holy Name and thy Majesty be blessed thro out all Generations Glorifie her O all ye Nations c. The 16. thus Save me O Lady for I have put my trust in thee c. The 19. thus The Heavens do declare thy glory O Virgin c. The 29. thus Bring to our Lady O ye Sons of God bring praise and worship to our Lady Give strength to thy Servants O holy Mother and bless them that magnifie thee Let Heaven and Earth bless thee the Sea and all the corners of the World c. The 42. thus Like as the Hart desires the water Brooks so longs my Soul after thy love O holy Virgin for thou art the Mother of my life the Nurse and restauration of my flesh and both the beginning and end of my Salvation c. The 44. thus We have heard with our ears O Lady and our Fathers have told us that thy Merits are ineffable and thy Miracles wonderful Thy Virtues are innumerable and thy Mercies inestimable Rejoice in her O my soul for many good things are laid up for them that praise her Blessed be thou O Queen of Angels c. The 51. thus Have mercy on me Lady who art call'd the Mother of Mercies and according to the Bowels of thy Compassions make me clean from all mine Iniquities Pour thy Grace upon me and withdraw not thy usual Mercies from me c. The 68. thus Let Mary arise and let all her Enemies be crush'd under her feet c. The 72. thus Give the King thy judgments O Lord and thy Mercy to the Queen his Mother Salvation and life O Lady are in thy hand perpetual Joy and glorious Eternity c. The 73. thus Truly God is loving unto Israel even to such as worship his Mother c. The 84. O how amiable are thy Dwellings O Lady of Hosts c. The 92. It is a good thing to give thanks and confess to the Virgin Mary and to sing Praises to her Glory to tell of her Merits that rejoice the heart and to imitate her Works which rejoice the Angels c. The 94. It is the Lord God to whom Vengeance belongs but thou art the Mother of Mercy who turnest him to compassion The 95. thus O come let us sing to our Lady let us heartily rejoice in the Virgin our she Savior The 103. Praise the Virgin Mary O my Soul and all that is in me praise and glorifie her name c. The 110. thus The Lord said unto my Lady Mother sit thou at my right hand Be thou reigning with me Have mercy upon me O Lady Mother of splendor enlighten me O thou Mother of Truth and Virtue c. The 117. O praise the Lady all ye Heathen glorifie her all ye Nations for her Merciful kindness remains upon us for ever whosoever will serve her shall be justified but whosoever neglects her shall die in his sins c. The 144. begins thus Blessed be our Lady who teaches her Servants to fight c. The 148. thus O praise our Lady of Heaven praise her in the height Praise her Sun and Moon And so all along to the very last O praise the Lady in her Holiness praise her in her Virtues and Miracles Let every Spirit or every thing that hath breath praise our Lady This Service goes under the name of a Superangelical and Seraphical Doctor a Roman Saint and a Cardinal besides whom they call St. Bonaventura Give this Worship what name you please it is all that David and Moses and other Prophets could bestow on the Lord God of Israel Now when the same is bestowed upon a holy Creature how great and holy soever yet a Creature judge what it is 5. Fifthly Lest the Lord God of Israel should receive any kind of honor from Men where the Lady had not her share what ever more eminent pieces of Divine Service they can find scattered in Holy Scripture they will be sure to give it her For example that of Moses Deut. 32. Give ear O ye Heavens to what I will speak of the Virgin Mary Magnifie her with me c. O perverse and crooked Generation acknowledg our Lady for thy she Savior Is she not thy Mother that hath begotten thee in Faith If thou forsakest her thou art no friend unto our Soveraign Cesar O that thou wert wise and wouldest consider thy last end As an Infant cannot live without his Nurse no more canst thou be saved without this our Lady Therefore let thy
Bosom to enrich all her neediest Members without any begging from Rome The Scapulary alone well applied to the Breast and Back is by it self a great Jewel It may as they say preserve mens lives better then the strongest Armor against all temporal Dangers and if you hearken to them all they will come to you with hundred stories what of women deliver'd some m Vid. The French Book intituled Alliance spirituelle avec la Vierge of Childbed some of a Cancer some of Leprosie some of a Feaver by appling this blessed Badg unto their Flesh what of men who could not be choaked by Devils n Fasti Carmel an 1368. nor drowned after they were bound hand and foot and thrown into the bottom of the Sea because they had the Scapulary But neither God nor the Pope ever gave the Church any thing comparable to it in all Spiritual Concerns They are not ashamed to call it a Mark of Eternal Salvation and a Spiritual Covenant with Gods Mother by which Covenant you have a clear Title to all what in favor and Mercy she can do for you But without resting on mens sayings because the honestest Monks we know are sometimes temted to say strange things you have as much from her own Mouth In hoc moriens c. i.e. He that dies with this Habit shall be saved and shall not suffer eternal Fire S. Simon and a great many Angels are Witnesses that she said so and as to Purgatory the terror of Roman Catholic Souls she her self engages solemnly Ego Mater Gloriosa c. I the Glorious Mother of God will come down in Person and fetch them out And of this you have no meaner witness then the Monarch and visible Head of your Church Pope John the 22d. Here is his Authentic Testimony in a Bull of his called the Sabbatina or Saturday Bull as I find it in Latin in an Authentic * Benedict Gononus Chronic. An. 1321. Roman Author with the approbation of both the Dominican and the Carmelitan Order And I thought fit to English it that every one may take notice what Spiritual waies Rome can afford for saving Men beyond what Christ and his Apostles were ever known to be able to do The Bull of Pope John the XXII for the Confirmation and Approbation of the Holy Scapulary JOHN Bishop and Servant of the Servants of Jesus Christ to all and every Faithful c. While I was Praying upon my Knees the Virgin of Mount Carmel appears to me and spake unto me in these Words O John O John the Vicar of my dear Son as I will deliver thee out of the hand of thine Adversary the Emperor Lewis the 4th whom he had Excommunicated and make thee Pope so I will that thou shouldest grant to my Holy and Devout Order of Mount Carmel founded by Elias and Elisha the grace of a full Confirmation namely That whosoever being profest will observe the Rule given by my Servant Albert the Patriarch and approved of by my well-beloved Innocent the true Vicar of my Son giving his consent upon Earth to what my Son had decreed in Heaven viz. That whosoever shall persevere in that Holy Obedience Poverty and Chastity and shall enter into this Order shall he saved And that any other Men or Women whosoever shall enter into this Holy Religion wearing the sign of the Holy Habit to wit the Scapulary calling themselves by the Name of Brethren and Sisters of the said Order and Confraternity shall be delivered and absolved from the third part of their Sins from the day of their admittance promising withal Chastity if she be Widow Virginity if a Maid and Conjugal Fidelity if she be a Married Woman And as to the profest Brethren of this said Order they shall be delivered both from Punishment and Sin And when they shall part out of this World making speed to Purgatory I the Glorious Mother of God will come down thither the next Saturday after their death and will rescue whomsoever I shall find in Purgatory and will bring them up into the holy Hill of Eternal Life But these Brethren and Sisters of the said Confraternity must say the Canonical hours after the Rule of St. Albert and if they be ignorant they must abstain from eating Flesh every Wednesday and Saturday unless some necessity hinder them except on my Sons Nativity Having said thus much that holy Apparition vanished away Therefore I John aforesaid accept of this Holy Indulgence and do confirm and strengthen it on Earth just as Jesus Christ hath by the Merits of his glorious Mother granted it in Heaven Therefore let no Man presume to annul or contradict this Page or Writ of our Indulgence or if he dare let him know that he shall incur the indignation of God Almighty and of his blessed Apostles Peter and Paul Given at Avignion Indict 3. and the first Year of our Pontificat This being so I wonder who would wish for more or who would not leave all to have so much 3. Nevertheless altho the best Indulgences of Rome or all other such Roman Pullies cannot do more then this viz. to pull a burning Soul out of the Purgatory Fire up to the Hill of Eternal Life yet if this happy Soul had a mind to appear there more Gentile then her own Works will allow her she hath the advantage of borrowing from the Confraternity wherewith to make her self as spruce and neat as one can wish Let but any Man imagine what stock of Mortifications and holy Works Elias did leave behind for Jezebel and John the Baptist for Herod and Herodias or our Country-man S. Simon for all other such as those three were in case they will all humbly come and devoutly wear about them this holy Scapulary Who is the ignorant or blind Buzard that wil not leave any Religion Gospel and Protestant Churches to run himself and all his sins under this blessed shelter CHAP. XIV Concerning the third means of obtaining Salvation by the Confraternity and 150 Beads of St. Dominic SAint Dominic and S. Francis are the two Saints which as they say our Lady Mary pacified a Flaminius in vita S. Dominic her own Son with being about to destroy Mankind for there she past her honest Word that these two Doctors should without fail reform the three sorts of Sinners the Proud the Covetous and the Carnal whom he hated and so set up again true Holiness thro the whole World You may guess what Francis hath don on that account by what I have said of his Girdle and you may hope likewise that S. Dominic may do as much or more with his 150 Beads However these two are by his Holiness b Bulla Aurea Sacri Praedicatorum Sixtus the Fourth voted to be both the two great Seraphims that help Men to flee up to Heaven upon the Wings of Divine Contemplations and Raptures and the two loud Trumpets which fill Heaven and Earth with their Holy sound
other Christian Champions whil'st they were writing large Volumes in defence of Religion where it seemed subject to reproach to leave this part alone undefended which by all Mens confession had if then in being the greatest need of defence If the Church of God had in those daies a most real and continual Mass-Sacrifice How came S. Cyrill of Alexandria to be so dull against his Custom as when Julian laughed at Christians for having neither Altars nor Sacrifices to stop his mouth with nothing else then Metaphorical Oblations And was this Apostate such a Sot as to object at every turn such meer Falshoods if Mass be true wherein he knew having bin long a Christian that any Body might stop his mouth It seems as some of their best Authors d Alphons de Cast. l. 8. tit Indulgentia confess the Mystery of Transubstantiation was yet in the Church incognito and came to appear as it doth now but a long while as they say e Gabr. Biel. in Can. Sect. 41. I. too after Christ had instituted it So it is not Catholic at all 3. Go you down to Purgatory that vast and wide subterranean Rome as great at least as this above-ground who also in a very great mesure is her Mother and Nurse for if this pretends to send down any kind of relief to that by her Masses and Massoffices yet 't is that which maintains and helps up this with Wealth Honors Monasteries and all imaginable affluence of Riches In the mean time this commerce how mutual and great soever is nothing less then Catholic having not followed the Gospel through all the Countries nor times of the Church Whensoever and wheresoever the Christian Faith was Preached there is left an Impression in the Heart of all Believers that there is after this Life a Heaven prepared for Faithful Souls and an everlasting Hell for those that shall be found not to be so Purgatory which is a third place and should of course if true have gon in the same company with these two never followed them half the way no Apostle so far as we can see in their holy Writings ever Preached it it was not blown by Gods Spirit thro-out the whole World as other Catholic Doctrines were it lodg'd in some corners only and that late or upon a Heathenish account and where by chance it was admitted it found no better entertainment then a wavering Opinion Such a thing may be saies one It is not unlikely saies another The Greek and Armenian Churches larger then the Roman is do not believe it f Alfon. di Castro l. 12. tit Purgatorium saies one of the most learned Papists It was believed but somewhat late saies g Fisher cont Luther Art item one of their Cardinal Bishops and tho Bellarmin turns over and over all the Scriptures to search it out many of his own Church do confess that they h Fisher ibid. Pet. à Solv Assert 8. Mart. Peresius de Traditione cannot find it there 4. Indulgences that vast revenue and staple Merchandize of Rome is neither more ancient nor Universal then its correspondent Purgatory For saies i Polyd Virgil. de Invent. l. 8. c. 1. a good Roman Author after Cardinal Fisher no body thought of Indulgences before Purgatory was set a foot these without this being of no value But a while after men had bin affrighted with the Purgatory Torments then began Indulgences to be of use If you will know why both came in late they will endeavor to k Gab. Biel. in Can. Lect. 57. M. Alfons à Castro l. 8. â—it Indulgentia satisfie you with two Reasons the first is because Christians in primitive time had few sins to trouble them after their death when they had any they needed no other flames then their own Zeal to burn them out and their great i Gregor de Valent. de Indulg punct 2. Mortifications besides left nothing to do for Indulgences The second is because the Ancient Church did not know all however much less then now we do The first reason stands upon mere inconsideration of what men were for the most part in the best times The second stands fair for new lights and upon this account you must exclude Purgatory Indulgences and Fanaticism from being Catholic Doctrines 5. You may join with those three all the Roman Praiers and Devotions to Saints This recommended daily and reputedly devout Emploiment hath not so much as the shadow of Catholic for it crept in among Christians as the Baalim did in Israel when the Holy men that had seen Moses and Joshua and the elders of that generation were all departed Jud. 2.10.11.12 when our Savior and his Apostles and the first Preachers of the Gospel had left the world During above four thousand years when God had undoubted Saints living on Earth among his People you shall not find one who ever call'd praied or worshipped any other Saint in Heaven then the Holy one of Israel Salmero one of the learned Disputants at Trent confesses m Salmero 1. ad Timoth. Disp 7. Sect. Nec obiter such Invocations have no express ground in all the Scriptures Bellarmin n Bell. de Beat Sanct l. 1. c. 19. Sect. Item ex c. 32. Suar. p. 3. q. 52. Salm. 1. Tim. 2. Disput 8. Eckius Enchirid. c. 15. and others must yeild it as to the 4000 and odd years that preceded the Ascension And as for the years that followed it Would to God saies Stapulensis o Faber Stapul Praefat. in Evang. we would conform our waies of Faith and Devotion to the example of the Primitive Church who never lookt but on one Christ and never Worshipped any other then he Holy Trinity Eckius p Eckius in Enchirid. câ—de Venerat SS also is clear for this Read for your better satisfaction Origen contra Cels l. 8. Euseb Eccles Hist. l. 4. c. 15. S. Epiphanius his whole Tract against the worshippers of the blessed Virgin S. Ambros 1. Rom. S. Austin de Civit. l. 8. c. 27. l. 22. c. 10. item contra Faust. l. 20. c. 21. The whole business of Image worship the most visible part of the Roman Religion came in later then the Saints worship and therefore appears to be less Catholic If Ancient Authors mention once as it were by chance q Euseb Eccl Hist l. 7. c. 18. a Statue made by the Woman and a Heathenish Woman was she whom Christ had cured of a bloody Flux or the Picture of some Apostles which had bin seen on private walls or the Figure of a Shepherd with a Lamb upon his shoulders ingraved in a Cummunion s Tertull. de Pudicitia Cup or a Representation of Histories and t Gregor Nyssen Tom. 3. Martyr Theodor. p. 579. Edit Paris 1638. Martyrdoms in one or two Oratories yet where is the Prophet the Apostle or the Holy Father who ever lookt on such Figures otherwise then common representations or Pieces
have the Essentials of Christian Religion For these essentials are not saving but where they have the Prevalency and they can but aggravate sin and leave it more inexcusable where they are baffled and opprest Can any man think that Pilats Judgment Hall becomes a Church for having Christ standing there to be condemned or that Dagons Temple becomes Gods house for having the Ark there shut up No wise man looks for any Harvest from a few handfulls of Wheat choaked with all manner of weeds nor takes it to be good Pasture which he sees to be overgrown with Thorns No sincere Israelite can ever think of being saved by the Religion of Dan and Bethel because it keeps still Moses his Law nor by the Samaritan Religion because they serve God as well as Baal Mixt and corrupt Religions are not to be valued so much in what is trodden under mens feet as by what is predominant and set upon their high Altars The great Building raised at Jerusalem by Adrian did not cease to be Jupiters Temple for being raised upon holy Foundations and the best Altars of the Lord can procure no Atonement tho they be kept in good repair when they serve for burning Swines Flesh Thus what expect you from the whole Bible while what is in it is but a Pedestal to hundeeds of false Superstitions or from the Preaching of Christ and himself crucified the chiefest learnin of S. Paul and the Salvation of Jews and Gentiles as long as it is made a Foundation for an abominable Mass Service In the mean while if Papists will still bless themselves and think that all is safe at home because they are called Catholics abroad and for my part I can but wonder to find here Bellarmin so weak let them remember that in the ancient times Men as erroneous as they are were called Gnostics Apostolics and Angelics that is Sublime and Angelical Christians and thus the very Turks may bless themselves whensoever we call them Musulmans that is Men of true saving Faith The Papists may give to themselves such Titles as they are best pleased with but when Protestants call them Catholics it is either out of ignorance for many are not acquainted with the true signification of that Word or a ciuil Complement or a meer Jest and Mockery 〈…〉 as to the truth it self the Roman Church 〈…〉 the true nor a truly Catholic Church 〈…〉 the true Catholic Church for this 〈…〉 pretend to but upon the account of 〈…〉 Jurisdiction over all the Churches of 〈◊〉 which Pretension where it prevails is a Sacrilegious Encroachment and where it doth not is a meer Fable Nor is she truly Catholic either by her own proper Doctrines Laws and Worship which all are new as to Christian Antiquity Local and unapostolical or by the common Principles of Christianity that she detains since she detains them in Unrighteousness over-whelmed oppressed and groaning under many heavy massy Burthens of Superstitions and Abuses beneath which she kept them and that not like the Oracles of God in a Church but as Captives in a Dungeon There both God in his Law and Jesus Christ in his Gospel are in a manner close Prisoners under a cruel Band of Soldiers not one Commandment among the ten few if any of the twelve Articles of the Creed but there are in the Church of Rome some special Errors and Impieties wickedly set to abuse them And this is both the Sanctuary that Rome opens for Salvation and the first fundamental Allurement she serves men with to entice them to Popery CHAP. III. Concerning the second Inducement to Popery The Roman Miracles NExt to the pretended Catholic Church Roman Miracles are the main Pride of Popery and its strange Wonders such as they be of Lauretta Montserrat and other places give as much countenance to the Roman as Delphi Delos Dodona and such other Seats of Heathenish Gods did to the Heathenish Religion The truth is Miracles will carry a great weight both with the unlearned and Learned Men when they are right and therefore it much concerns every one that hath no mind to be cheated well to know the right from the wrong All true Christian Miracles are supernatural or extraordinary Works wrought for a time either by the immediate Hand of God or by the Mediation of Men and Angels when moved or strengthned thereto by him for the farther authorizing and confirming true Catholic and Christian Truth especially among Infidels First I say true Christian Miracles not only to oppose them to all Cheating and Fabulous but also to distinguish them from other more common supernatural Effects which God is pleased sometimes to shew promiscuously among all sorts of Nations for the asserting of his Power Justice Mercy or more generally his Divine Being in the course of his Providence There is not a Nation in the whole World but may find if they will search many such admirable Passages in their Chronicles nor scarce any private Man but may observe somwhat of these as he calls them strange Accidents in his own time It is most certain that God sent his Angels and with them his great Judgments and Powers among the Persians and Greeks called Javan Dan. 10. as well as among the Israelites and besides what either the Earth or the Heavens can do by their proper Influence and what Man-kind can add unto it by their own good or bad conduct in the ordinary course of things the miraculous Hand of God often times over-rules so visibly that no sober man can doubt of his interposition and guidance Of this kind are the stupendous and unexpected rises and falls of great Estates the slaughters of many thousands mention'd in divers Histories by an inconsiderable handful of men the raising of Princes among Pagans to an extraordinary pitch of Moral Vertue and Heroical Courage the terrible Prodigies Blazing-stars and Predictions before great Desolations and Plagues somtimes Curses somtimes Blessings fastned as it were to some Houses c. No judicious Man will fancy that Cyrus for example or Alexander either would undertake or could perform their vast Designs amidst their Disadvantages without some singular influence and help from above and whosoever will consider what Plato was and what he makes a Plato in Apolog. Socrat. Socrates say before his death can hardly forbear thinking but that this Heroical Pagan had commonly the Assistance of a good Angel These and other such great Examples taken notice of by all sorts of Historians confirm the truth of Gods special care about the conservation of Societies and signifie nothing at all about their true or untrue Religion in Churches or Temples If they did where is that pitiful Sect or Country but might allege sundry Miracles to justifie its own Pagan or Heretical Perswasion The Emperors Vespatian and Adrian might have authorized by this means the Worshipping of Roman Eagles for both are said b Corn. Tacitus Hist. l. 4. to have restor'd sight to blind men the Vestal in
the stead of either a Prophet to revele or of a Messenger to bring or of a kind of Clerk to read to them all these Praiers Here to make use of those Examples wherewith both o Bell. de Beatit Sanct. l. 1. c. 20. sect Respondeo quemadmodum Papists and p S. Ambros ad Rom. c. 1. Pagans will perswade Men to call upon their Saints the King alone must be the Master of Requests to his Courtiers and the Speaker to his Commons to inform them of every great and every petty trifling thing that their respective Relations Countries and Towns will have them put in a Bill and then present it to his own self Whensoever the Pope calls on S. Peter or a Cardinal on S. Jerom or a Monk on St. Cutbert or any Catholic Man or Woman upon the Virgin nothing is done till God himself calls for these Saints and tells them Hear you Peter Jerome and you Cuthert such and such People now pray to you that you would pray to me and perswade me thro your Merits to grant them such and such things And to dispose you the better to be forward in this Office I must tell you the Pope is old the Cardinal wants an Estate suitable to his Eminence and unless you make hast to solicit me for more Grace such Monks or Maidens your humble Suiters are at this very nick of time in great danger of Incontinency Then and not a moment before come up the Saints with these Praiers to press and solicit with God the very same things and circumstances which God hath reveled to his Saints before Such Wheelings and Impertinencies as these were ridiculous upon a Stage much more are they so in a Church and how much more with God in Heaven And what can you think of the Comedians who dare bring both God and his Saints as chief Actors in such a Play Well Praier to Saints includes these sins in its most plausible Practice when 't is no more then calling on the blessed Saints that they be pleased to mediate and to intercede in their Praiers for us to God which is the cheating notion under which Men ashamed of what they do would fain disguise their Praying to Souls and Angels with the colour of doing q Bell. de Sanct. Beat. l. 1. c. 17. c. 20. no more then when we pray here our Friends and Pastors to pray to God Almighty for us But when they pray and beg at their hands not only for Praiers but as it is apparent by their real practice and the stories of their best Saints for effectual Deliverances such praying is without excuse for instead of the former Drudgery which the other puts upon God this attributes Ubiquity Omnipotency and other infinite and Divine Powers to Saints that is the Church of Rome cannot expect and upon that expectation cannot Pray as they do every where at the same time to the Virgin Mary for example to bless and help them unless she be conceived as being both present every where and potent to bless them and help them every where And this is a double Immensity that of being present where they pray especially where they pray more devoutly and of being present where she helps For without this Ubiquity how could she be seen at Harvest wiping the Faces of r Vincent Sperat Hist l. 8. c 17. of reaping Monks or in a Chamber rubbing s Menol. Cisterc. 22. Decemb. the Head of the good honest Father Adam whilest she is elsewhere t Chronicon Ord. Min. Tom. 2. l. 5. burning Villages or in a rich Abby u De Mirac B. M. 2 Tem. Serm. Discipuli Moguntiae 1612. Mid-wiving an Abbess whom her Steward had unfortunatly gotten with Child Is it not unimaginable that during either of the two daies when she was under a Gallows x Chronic. Deip. an 1358. holding up a Thief under the Feet for fear his own weight should strangle him she could be then in a River y Ib. an 1134. riding Prince Pocoldas his Horse or upon the Walls of Poictiers beating the English off from that Town Or if she be so nimble as to be at the same time under a Gallows upon a Wall and in the middle of a River because all these places are in Europe Can she run both the East and West Indies at the same moment of time there to a Beretar invita Anachoretae l. 1. c. 1. make a Jesuit more chast and here to comfort b Bal nghem 11. Apr. a poor Captain Thus far what Bellarmin saies c Bell. de Beat. Sanct. l. 1. c. 20. sect Alii dicunt may very well pass for certain truth that to help Men in the point of need at z Ibid. an 1200. the same time and in so many distant Countries no nimbleness can serve the turn nor any thing less saies he then a true Omnipresence which is an Attribute proper to God Every Saturday in the Week requires in a special manner this Universal Presence for then the Virgin Mary is in her own Person undoubtedly and by their most solemn Devotions upon that day exalted besides others above the highest Heavens She is at the same time conceived to be most present and beneficial by her Miracles and other waies to her Worshippers upon Earth and according to the promises which she hath d Bull. Sabbath passed to Pope John the 22d she goes down to Purgatory upon that day and therefore she is then under ground This same Universal Presence the clearest Character of God is in a very great mesure required in all other Saints for she goes seldom without them then they are praied to nevertheless from all parts not only to intercede in Heaven which there they might being in one place but to assist them by Sea and Land in Spain and in Armenia which no man believes they can do without believing them every where For no created Causes whatsoever can work any thing but where they are If our Savior did help some sick at a distance from him as Matth. 8.12 He did it with that Divine immense Nature that his human was united to And Holy Souls are not likely to have more power then the Angels who are personally present wheresoever they work any thing If any one say that the Saints may out of Heaven do on Earth whatever they please not by their coming down themselves but by their sending down some Angels First let him shew That the Saints are not only equal to but superiors to the Angels and then that they have the disposal of this Celestial Hierarchy Secondly tho they or at the least the Virgin had it yet this sending of Angels could not be applied but to some few private Services as when some say 't was not her self but some Angel whom she had sent for her but to counterfeit the Devotions and to save the credit of a Nun for the space of nine whole Years when
Interceding or by her having brought forth a Savior towards the Salvation of mankind she hath a good and proper share with Christ himself in the very Act of saving them for first as God so loved the world that he gave them his only Son c. Joh. 3.16 So if you believe these Roman a S. Bonaventur in verb. Sic Deus c. Doctors and Saints too the Virgin Mary can say as much for Christ was hers and under her Dominion as b Anselm de Excell Virg. c. 3. well as under that of his Father therefore when she gave him she gave what was properly her own Secondly she herein did more then God himself since she not only gave him to the world as God did by consenting but by offering him her self most really for there they say she stood by the Cross not as a Mother to pitty her Son or as a Disciple to believe on him but as a Priest c Salazar supr n. 211 212 213. to offer him in Sacrifice to help him in his Sacerdotal Function and mark how far this folly goes if the Murtherers had failed * Aloys Novarin Sacrorum Elect. l. 4. Excursu 49. to Sacrifice him with her own hands O Virgin saies the supposititious Epiphanius †Sermone de Laudib Mariae the Stupendous Tresure of the Church She is both the Priest and the Altar She brings both the Table and the Bread c. Thirdly they say that she stood there to Sacrifice her self with him Her very standing up with her stretcht Armes was d Guillelm in Cant. 7. Statura tua c. n. 7. her Cross and the Anguish of her heart e Bonavent de Compass Virg. Lect. 1. greater as they say or at the least more sensibly felt then any pain which her Son did suffer then in his Body was her Passion Thus both Christ and his Mother saies another famous Doctor had one design and both offered to God one and the same Burnt-Sacrifice He the Blood of his Flesh and she the Blood of her Heart Now believe them who say that Saints and she especially are Mediators and Saviors only by Praying and not by giving and working by their very suffering the Grace and Salvation which we pray for She was saies Salmeron a main Supporter of the Roman Church among the Tridentine Fathers cooperatrix g Salm. Tom. 6. Tract 6. sect secundus sensus p. 39. Edit Col. 1613. that is Christs Fellow-laborer in the very Passion to the end that as a Man and a Woman did work out the utter ruine of Man-kind so a Man and a Woman might perfect their Salvation and as well here as there the Woman should be the Instigatrix or the first Sollicitress Eve to temt and Mary to set the Man to work Thus she is saies another h Gabr. Biel. in Festo Visitat Serm. 1. the Mother of Redemtion by shedding her Soul into compassion under as Christ did his in Passion upon the Cross And if Christ seem to baffle away this Partnership and vindicate the whole work to himself alone in the Prophesie of Isaiah 63.3 I have troden the Wine-press alone and of the People there was no Man with me They have a ready Answer for him It is true †Ricard de laudib Mariae V. l. 2. part 2. saith one O Lord there f Arnold Carnotens De laud. Virg. Biblioth Patr. Tom. 1. is no Man with thee but there is a Woman with thee who suffers in her very Heart all the blows and wounds which thou receivest in thy Body These great Sufferings and Satisfactions being her own she may i Mendosa Virid l. 2. Problem 5. n. 30. apply them to whom she pleases without troubling her Son about it even so far sometimes as the Salvation and the very rescuing damned Men from †Petr. Dam. Serm. 2. de Nativ Virginis Hell can come to besides what some other Divines think she may do by offering still in Heaven both her self and her Son for k Manual Sodalitat B. M. c. 2. part 4. pag. 91. the Redemtion of all Men. However if upon this foundation that she is by the Roman Catholics l Salazar Prov. c. 8. v. 19. n. 215 222. called and conceived to be which otherwise they m Ibid. n. 222. think she could not the very Redeemer the Cause and Author of Eternal Salvation the Restorer of Mankind the n Albertus Magnus Bibl. pag. 88. Mercy-seat the Queen o Antonin in Sum. part 4. T. 15. c. 3. sect 3. the Priest and the Prophet the Hope of the whole World the Gate of Heaven the p Bibl. Mar. p. 89. Altar of Burnt-sacrifices the Cherub q Mendosa Virid l. 2. Probl. 2. n. 13. of equal light with the other that represented Christ in a word any thing that Blasphemers can think of to make her upon her proper account quite parallel unto Christ and as well in the act of Salvation as in their own ordinary Praiers to huddle up both the Hand-maid and the Savior into one Jesu Maria together Last of all the Virgin Mary having so well plaied her Priestly part in Sacrificing both her self and her Son here upon Earth she was in all reason after the manner of Oblations to have ascended along with Christ into Heaven and it is much wonder'd by some †Anselm de Excell B. V. c. 7. as at a kind of unkindness wherefore Christ would when he went up leave his afflicted Mother behind But they presently satisfie this scruple by attributing it to a kind of State Policy For if both had made their public entry into Heaven at the same time * Ibid. it had puzled the Angels whether of the two to adore first So it was conceived more prudent that he should go up before both to prevent all Jealousie and to prepare for her coming the whole Celestial Court which had bin divided otherwise to a more noble Reception Now she is there Gods Throne is not too good for her and her glory is not so much equal to as the very same r Arnold Carnotens supra with that of Christ for if you can hear a Blasphemy because she as well as Christ humbled her self to the death of the Cross s Idiota de Laud. Mar. c. 5. therefore hath God highly exalted her and given her the Name of Mary that is as they say Lady and Mistress which is above all Names that at this Name every knee should bow c. There she sits as it becomes both the t Missal Paris in Purificatione Empress of Heaven and the Conqueress of Hell There both the Angelical and the human Nature wait on her u Bonavent in specul c. 3. as the two Maids did on Queen Esther There Saints and Angels and Arch-angels are all in their several Capacities her Courtiers or her Nobles her Officers or her Soldiers and generally all one with another
familiarity with the Virgin and thereby learned to look her full in the face now fall to the first g Ibid. Miscell 24. n. 3. Decad or the first ten Ave Maria's of your Rosary Ave Maria Gratia plena Dominus c. And at the end of each Decad fastening alwaies your Eies on her in one of the three postures aforesaid adore her with this Doxology instead of Glory be to the Father Virgin Mother Glorious Mary let all the Angels and Arch-angels all Principalities Dominations and Powers the Thrones the Cherubims and Seraphins now glorifie you a thousand times And we hope to see you and adore you once in Heaven as well as they Amen Then take your breath and at the end of the second Decad or ten other Ave Maria's tell her this O glorious Virgin Mother let Adam and Eve Elias and Enoch the Patriarchs and the Prophets St. John Baptist the Innocents and all the Saints of the Old Testament with whom we hope one of these daies to see and adore you now bless you twenty thousand times Amen At the end of the third Decad that is as far as to 30. Aves O glorious Queen c. Let Peter and Paul and John and all the Apostles and Evangelists let Stephen and all the Lords Disciples Sebastian and all the Martyrs with whom c. now praise and bless you thirty thousand times At the end of the fourth Decad that reaches to 40 Aves Let all the Confessors Sylvester Gregory Jerome Isidor Martin and Nicolas Benedict and Bernard Dominic and Francis all the Bishops Monks and Eremits c. bless you now forty thousand times Ave Maria. And at the end of the fifth Decad O most glorious Virgin Mother let your Mother Anna and your two sisters Maries let Magdalen and your dearest Martha and Marcella let your dear waiting Maids Agnes Catharina and Agatha let all holy Maids Wives and Widows with whom we hope c. now bless you fifty thousand times Amen By this time you have done the third part of your Rosary and now you may take breath a while 5. When you shall come to it again for the first part is enough to some for a day and to others for a whole Week that you may both recreate and improve Devotion with some variety A wise and holy Man advises you h Navar. De Orat. c. 10. n. 36. to say but 5 Aves and to put a Pater to each and apply all to the five Wounds which Christ suffered in his Body for it is ordinary with these Men to say Our Father to the Virgin and Ave Maria to God with this Preface Go too let us sing five Pater nosters and five Aves to the honor of the five Wounds and first in memory of the right Hand Ave Maria gratia c. next in memory of the right Foot wounded Ave Maria c. then of the left Hand and Foot in the same way finally of his side concluding all the five Paters at every wounded Member with an Ave Maria by all means that being as pertinent to his Body as a Pater can be to her Image 6. When you have done with applying your Ave Maria's to Christ apply them now which is more proper to her self And by all means stick close to the direction of St. Herman not Herman the second Joseph and Husband of the Virgin Mary but the Dominican and therefore the best acquainted with Rosaries His advice is that having the Virgins Image before you you k Chronic. Deip. an 1243. take her whole Body piece by piece and apply to each an Ave beginning first with her Bowels then proceed to her Heart then her Paps after her Arms then her Hands then her Mouth in a Word every Member that you can civilly name and look upon in a Woman that so all your Aves may get more Merit and Holiness by being applied to every part of her Body as the Beads or little Buttons of your Rosary do you know by being touched at her Image For this piece of Devotion she once on a Saturday gave a gracious visit to this l Ibidem Harman and enriched him then with Eloquence the gift of Tongues and all other Graces imaginable 7. Another thing you may do more which Jordan m Gonon Chronic. an 1222. the Dominican and a great Saint gave in Counsil to Bertholdus When you are pouring your Praiers before the Mother of Mercies take notice of how many Letters the name Maria is made of it consists of five the first is M. therefore seek for some holy Song or Psalm of which the first Letter is an M. such is for example Magnificat c. The second Letter is an A. then say Ad te levavi c. The third is R. therefore have at Retribue c. and so to the very last After which you must dispatch your Aves provided which you may omit by no means that before any one of the five Psalms you sing or say Ave Maris stella I salute you O star of the Sea c. And at the end of every such Song you make a Leg or a Courtesie and then end with Ave Maria. This parcel of special Worship once pleased so well this Spirit for God forbid I should think it to be the blessed Virgin that leaving all work in Heaven she came down with a Pot full of Holy Water to sprinkle it on these Worshippers with her own n Gonon ibid. hand and to bid one of them tell all the others as from her that she was the Mother of God that she loved dearly their Order for thus beginning and ending the Service of God with her Praises and that for her doing so she obtained of her Son that no Dominican Friar shall ever defile that holy Order by lying long in mortal Sins A very great Privilege indeed and given to Monks from a good hand You might also do what St. Joane the Carmelite used to do * Benedict Mattus in vita Johannae Carmel but not to that prodigious number for she did dispatch I hope it was not at one time fifteen thousand Aves fifteen score is enough for you and at the end of each hundred she said a Salve Regina and seven times Ave Stella or O gloriosa Domina all prime Songs to adore her with and she called this Our Ladies Shift this being her Ladiships goodness to account it as so many Crowns or Ornaments and rich Garments bestowed on her when she is adored in this manner It is by the strength of such Hymns and well ordered Repetitions and Rosaries that S. Dominic o Flaminius in vita S. Dominic and S. Francis were predestinated as they say both to restore Piety and to keep the World from perishing that in all probability so many black Friars were admitted under the p Antonin 3. part Hist tit 23. c. 3. Robe of their Goddess that with continual repeting the Rosary Salutation Eustachius
q Menol. Cister 27 Mar. the Cistercian had it miraculously written in plain Characters on his Tongue that with continual using and kissing holy Beads r Chronic. Deip. an 1212. Alanus the Captain had a brightness like that of Crystal about his Mouth and in his Hands and that many Monks of all Orders had Roses and Lilies with Ave Maria's in Golden Letters growing on them or their Graves S. Å¿ Mayer Annal. Fland. l. 5. ad an 1138. Jossion and S. t Cantiprat de Ap. l. 2. c. 29. sect 15. Josbert are upon this last account great examples of her kindness But and if your thoughts will not flie higher then to the common Glory of Heaven the ordinary use of the Rosary needs not put you to half this trouble It is certain that St. Dominic the first Patriarch of this Device and St. Alanus de Rupe the worthy Restorer of it both inspired by the same Spirit intended it u Navar de Rosar Miscell 22. n. 1. for the common People Men Women and Children together whom they knew unable to reach so far And therefore these indulgent Fathers are likely to dispense with them who will use it at easier rates Read it but once in a whole Week and at several times and parcels that will abundantly serve your turn Read it with no more attention then such as you are capable of when you x Ibid. Miscell 32. go to the Market or walk in a Procession or ride abroad or prune your Vine * Paul Layman de Hor. Canon c. 5. n. 11 12. or put on or off your clothes c. provided that you neither read nor write If furthermore by chance you have lost your Beads either you may take y Navar. de Psalter Miscell 28. n. 1. your Fingers that will presently make a Decad or observe by how many steps you go up to such a Chappel and run your Paters and Aves after that number such cursory Devotions will be enough for to save you St. Alanus z Alan Rediv. par 5. c. 51. c. 59 c. c. 62. alone the great Mignion of this Virgin can give you a whole set of Blasphemers and Rogues and Whores who did not the half of all this yet were all saved one way or other Now who is the habitual Sinner who being conscious of his waies and of his unwillingness to amend them would not part with any thing rather then with such an Indulgent Mother Rosary and Religion But here is yet more if more can be CHAP. IX Of the vast Tresure of the Roman Church and her Power to dispose of it BEsides the Virgin Mary whom the Papists do look upon as their sure Tresure in Heaven and the most immediate Store-house whence they get one way or other all both extraordinary and easie means in order to Salvation they also enrich themselves and others with another as great Tresure which their Church dispenses on Earth In Heaven as they take it Mary is the great Ocean into which all the Heavenly Blessings and Vertues like so many Rivers do flow Omnia Flumina c. saies a S. Bonavent in Specul one of their most Learned Saints that is All Rivers and Floods run into the Sea when all Gifts and Graces meet in Mary to wit the Streams of Graces that the Angels are watered with the Rivers of all the other Blessings which all the Saints of God ever had c. And as another of their Saints expresses it God hath placed in the Virgin b S. Bernard Serm. de Aquaeduct Mary the fulness of all that is good so that if we have any hope any Blessing and Salvation we may be sure it comes from her If this fulness be not enough with what she hath on her account she can fill it up and make it run over with what all the Saints may add to it For the Saints they say are to c Georg. Venetus ap Salaz Prov. c. 8. v. 34. n. 435. the Virgin what the Stars are to the Moon and those load her with all the Fruits of their Intercessions as these do this with their Influences before either of them come down to us In Earth they have the use and disposal of another stock as rich and as necessary to Sinners which they call the Churches Tresury And if you compare it as the other to a Sea four great Rivers continually do fill it up or keep it full The first is d Mart. Bonacin De Indulg q. 1. punct 1. n. 6. the satisfactions of all the Saints from Adam and Abel to Christ For as the Roman Doctors teach us they suffered more then need was and no use was made of their sufferings because during the 4000 years to Christs Ascension Heaven they think was not open nor had Christ impowered any Man to take ought of this Tresure in order to any Pardons The second is the Passion of Jesus Christ whose Blood they say e Clem. 6. Extravag Vnigenitus had it bin but one drop was enough to save all Mankind therefore all the surplusage either before or at his Passion is reserved unless lost in this vast Tresury The third all the meritorious Sufferings and Passions of the Virgin Mary which as they think f Bellarm. de Indulg l. 1. c. 2. sect Quarta Propositio she needed not for her self and so the Church applies to others This one River may make a Sea The fourth is the Sufferings the Martydoms and the Penances of all the Saints since the Gospel Peter Paul S. Dominic and S. Francis and all holy Monks and Eremits who tho perhaps not quite sinless yet had no need to do so much as for themselves to satisfie Divine Justice Here then you have to make use of first all the Blood which the Martyrs from Abel to Barachias under the Old and from him to the last Sufferer under the New Testament could shed in above five thousand years Secondly We have of Christs Blood all he ever shed upon the Cross saving one drop all that whole Flood I say that from his Head down to his Feet gushed from his Wounds and the opening of all his Veins even since his Circumcision and by this guess how many thousand of Roman Churches may be redeemed with this Tresure if well applied Thirdly You have in the same store the hard Penances the cruel Persecutions and the voluntary Whippings whether bloody or unbloody of all other Saints Monks and Eremits whatever either S. Anthony or S. Hilarion or S. Paulus so much celebrated by S. Jerome whatever S. Zebinas S. Julian S. Simeon S. Maris or S. Masymas and others celebrated by S. Theodoret Palladius c. could gain by their hard usages and Iron Chains whatever the great St. Francis could deserve of God Almighty by leaving g Lippom. in vita Francisc all he had in the World even to his very drawers and breeches by rambling naked like a Mad-man
Mary and partly got and stolen from her Son when he had bin in her own lap What can you not hope of S. Osanna another sister of this holy Confraternity who being yet t Balinghen Calendar B. M. 17. Jun. a Child had the Virgin for her School-Mistress and being come to riper years had the Holy Babe for her Husband What shall I say of St. Alanus of Dinam for whose Deliverance the u Chronic. Deip. an 1212. Rosary Goddess destroied his Enemies at land with 150 Thunderbolts and raised out of the deep Sea as many Mountains an equal number to his Beads to make him a Bridg to run away and what of the other S. Alanus de Rupe the Restorer of Rosaries the true x Ibid. an 1476. Husband of this Goddess and withal her bosom sucker Have these and all whom I could name Popes Cardinals and other Grandees of the same Confraternity cast nothing into the Tresury And if all these did not cast in enough take all Gods Saints from the very beginning of the World to the year 1431. for if Roman Revelations be at all true they y Arch. Caraccius De Rosar part 4. c. 35. all without exception use and sing out the Rosary Take along with them all the Angels and as they love to speak the whole Celestial Court for every good Roman Catholic is perswaded unless they offer to contradict z B. Alan parf. 1. c. 19. both S. Alan and his Virgin that they also sing in Heaven the Rosary and that both these to wit Saints and Angels make up but one Arch-Confraternity together Now the Custom of this Society a Navar. de Psalter Miscellan 9. n. 4. being so free as to limit no favors at all as others most commonly do but to allow to every Member a full Communication of all what a huge deal of wealth is all this to every one be he otherwise never so poor All the Intercessions of Saints above all the Merits of more Saints below all the extraordinary showers of Privileges and full Indulgences from Rome all the watchings and helps of the good Angels and that which must be reckoned above all things the continual favor and Countenance of the Queen of Heaven her self in this vast Concurrence of all the Saints and holy things from Heaven and Earth together what can the wit of man fancy that both this Confraternity may not contain and the Rosary Brother well expect Are you for a shelter against public Calamities The Holy Rosary is good for it They think that by the strength of this Weapon the b Gregor 13. Bull. Monet Apostolus Turks were beaten from Europe the war ceased from d Leo 10. Bull. Pastoris aeterni Cologne and e Arch. Carac de Ros part 1. c. 17. Genua and the great Plague f Id. part 4. Miracul 19. from Pavia Are you troubled with private Distresses Frier Amat had no better way to g Chronic. Deip. an 1538. choak a Devil nor S. Salvator h Ibid. an 1567. to cure the deaf nor S. Dominic i Bov. tom 13. an 1213. n. 9. to procure Children and cure Barrenness nor General Montfort and Captain Anthony k Alanus de Insulis in Rosar to rout Armies nor the two Spanish Women l Archang in Rosario part 4. to escape hanging What they say of the Spanish Ass is most pertinent to this purpose This Beast is often in that Country made use of to carry condemned Persons to the place of Execution and 't is not heard but the innocent stupid Animal performs quietly this Office except one time m Lopaz de Rosar l. 1. c. 10. when it grew so intelligent as to perceive that the Wretch who was on its back related to the Rosary then it was wonderful to see how quick and nimble this slow Beast turns back again from the Gallows and galloping through all the Guards who attended the Execution and all the common People which then was thronging to see it carries her dear charge to the Church there laies it down most devoutly before a Rosary Altar You must conceive that either the Grace infused into these Beads at their Consecration works out these ordinary Miracles or that the Rosary Queen whom they call the Mistress of the World and the General of this Order is alwaies present and active upon all great Exigencies wherein her Officers are concerned especially when she sees them bearing up or marching under that which she takes n Caraccius de Rosar part 1. c. 10. for her Banner Nevertheless tho the essential Riches of this potent Confraternity be so extremely considerable in all Secular advantages even sometimes so as o Navar. de Horis Canon c. 19. n. 160. to make Men fortunate in Wives and all other Bargains yet it s great worth lies more in all Spiritual and Eternal Concerns St. Alain who never was seen without the Ring which our Lady p Gonon Chronic. an 1476. twisted for him of her own Hair nor without that Heavenly Chain of Beads which she put about his Neck at the same time doth assure us upon this account that to be enrolled in the Book of this happy Confraternity is q Beat. Alan part 1. c. 17. to be enrolled in the very Book of Life that the benefit which they receive from being thus registred r Id. c. 18. is no less then to be chosen and adopted for Gods Children that such registred Persons are much better then the hundred forty four thousand were in the seventh of St. Johns Revelation and that all Friends and Promoters of this admirable Society do set up for all sinners as good as the Ladder in Jacobs Vision to scale Heaven And as for themselves they shall be there glorified not only as Abel and Abraham and the other Patriarchs are but as the noblest Angels of God And let none be discouraged from this great Hope for feeling himself but a sinful Wretch since as the same Father saies if true Qui propriis c. that the very Reprobates as to their proper and personal Demerits are made the Children of God by the communion and benefit of this Society For as a Rosary had in the hand of S. Salvator the vertu of curing Quartan Agues when it was laid t Chronic. Min. l. 5. tit 4. upon ones head so it had in the hand of St. Dominic a greater Gift namely that of infusing Grace or however expelling Vice when laid u Bovius Annal. to 13. an 219. n. 12. at Night under ones Pillow For my part I know no fowler Villain then that Noble Man at Paris was who was sanctified by this means Where ever was a more prostitute Whore then fair Catharina at Rome who both in the heat of her Lust and her Zeal for this blessed Rosary was converted also and in such an extraordinary manner x Chronic. Deip. an 1221. as is not fit for
me to relate But tho Registred Brethren or Sisters should not care much for Conversion and tho their good Goddess f Id. c. 33. and Mistress would Indulge them their liberty as she often doth as long as they shall enjoy their life yet which is the sweetest of all none of these worthy Members can perish but either the strength of their Beads or the kindness of their Lady or some like thing or other shall save them from Hell when they are dead Who can be more wanton then Alexandra of Aragon was And yet she was raised from the dead absolved and visibly saved as they say 150 daies the just number of her Rosary Beads after her Head had bin chopt off and thrown into a deep Well Was ever a Man in the whole World more fit and likely to fall into Hell then was the desperate Robber whom some others stronger then he had suddenly kill'd in his Sin and whom the Rosary Princess reviv'd and kept so long under z Archang Caracc de Rosar part 4. Miracul 16. ground till St. Dominic heard him calling for help and both digged him up and absolved him two whole Years after he had bin buried This High-way Man it seems had heard of Saint Dominic's Preaching and therefore had made use of his Rosary purposely to venture himself more safely to all the hazards of his Trade and he did well for as soon as he was absolved his Body fell down to the Grave and his Soul fled up to Heaven An Indulgent Mistress indeed who will allow her dearest Mignions during their life their Belly full of all Plesures and when they die all the Joies of her Paradice Let good Catholics have but as much Devotion as a public Robber or a common Whore are capable of then a Scapulary a Rosary or St. Francis Girdle all three together or any one of y Chronic. ibid. them by it self shall save them all And among all these Impertinencies sober Papists cannot perceive their own weakness or the irresistible Charm of a besotting Religion CHAP. XV. Concerning divers other Instruments of Blessing and Salvation SAint Simous Rocket S. Francis Girdle and S. Dominic's Rosary are but three of the numberless Inventions which the Church of Rome hath found of late to promote Grace and Salvation The poor Protestants have no waies to help themselves with but such as Christ and his Apostles did leave to all the World besides Faith Repentance Perseverance in well doing c. happy Catholics have an hundred other both more commodious and more taking and it is fit that all Christendom should know them since they do prove such useful means both to keep and to draw the common People to their Faith These gracious Tools are of two sorts some are supposed to have had a being a good while ago but were of late discovered or however put to the new use which now they have The others are made new every day by Roman Popes Bishops and Priests in the same way that other Tools are made and brought to what they are by the Master of every Craft Of the first sort are the Tacklings which now the Roman Church gives out for Relics and which of late have got the credit of procuring what every one asks For if the vast store of supposed old holy stuff which S. Peters S. Pauls S. Laurence and other Churches keep in their Sanctuaries at a Job Diacon de supr Sanctit Eccl. Lateran Rome had a being in ancient times it was unknown Neither Josephus nor Philo nor Origen nor St. Jerome nor any other of those great Men and most versed in Antiquity can tell us where to find the Rod wherewith Moses did strike out Water nor the Altar where Melchisedec presented to God Bread and Wine nor the Golden Censer of Aaron nor the Ark of the ancient Covenant c. which now they shew in the Vatican The most pious and ancient Fathers had bin amazed to hear Men speak of the first Shirt that Christ put on or of the Bottles which the Virgin used to fill with her own Milk or of the Hair the Shift the Shoes and the very pareings of her Nails which she left with them when she went up If all these things I say had a being either it was hidden somewhere with those many Crosses and Images which the Monks have digged up from under ground or in the bottom of some deep Well where none but Angels b Gonon Chronic. an 1116. are heard to sing or it was kept in some of those Ward-robes whence the Virgin brings out her Veils Hoods and such other Favors when she hath a mind to hearten her Monks And tho some Men had known somthing of their Being which is not true yet no Man ever had hitherto any experience of their Virtu For who of all the Fathers ever knew that any Shift which the Virgin had left behind had the power which that of Chartres as they say hath of disabling c S. Anthonin 2. p. Hist tit 16. c. 2. sect 5. an Enemy from going backwards or forwards and of imparting the same quality to any Shirt d Histor Carnot an 1060. which toucheth the Box wherein 't is kept Did ever Men dream before Pope John the 22d e Medida del Pie Sanctissimo c. impress cum Licentia that her Slipper being kissed and adored with some Aves should procure Atonement for many sins and a Pardon for 700 Years Who may not wonder that these Utensils should have bin kept so long that is above a thousand Years in the dark and now in these last Ages should swarm abroad so thick and admirable to all ends and purposes every where Most of them f Baptist Laurus De Annulo pronubo saies the Popes Protonotary have bin kept hidden a great while and from hand to hand delivered either to ignorant persons who knew not how to value them or to profane and negligent Trustees who did not care They think 't was upon this account g Horat. Tursel Lauret Hist l. 1. that our now Lauretan Lady kept her self above 1200 Years obscure and unactive in Nazareth till at last she forsook her Country to shew her self in Italy where she meets with more pious People and worthier to see hir Miracles then the Apostolical and Primitive Golden Age was 1. First begin if you please with this prodigious Relic a whole Room with Walls Roof Windows where the said Lauretan Lady assures a Bishop that she was born and had received the Salutation of the Arch-angel There also they shew the Altar which they say St. Peter consecrated a Crucifix which the other Apostles had set up and chiefly her own Picture which as she saies her admirable Painter Luke had drawn This famous Domicile was brought with these Appurtenances in one Night from Nazareth over Seas and Lands by mighty Angles and can if honored with a Visit with an Offering or with a Vow cure
enable them towards any manner of work let us see what the consecrating of this Matter and Form can do For if this last can do little or nothing in order to those great and extraordinary Operations which are attributed to Roman Images you must needs seek farther for some other both as great and extraordinary Principles The Consecrating of Images as the Roman Church practises it may be considered either as a Praier or as an ordinary or extraordinary Power If you take it as a Praier 1. What Ground of faith have they for venturing upon such Praiers and what Promise Precept or Precedent for Blessing Images in hope of being afterwards blessed by them 2. With what Christian and sober modesty can they wish and devise Instruments which no holy man or Scripture ever thought of to put both God upon hearing or his Saints upon mediating and promoting what we shall pray for before Images 3. And as to more special Blessings which are lookt for at the devout using of these Engines what silly fancy is this to call upon God for making wood stone or any other materials that Images are commonly made of after they have shaped it after their own way happy and powerful Instruments to keep houses and Vineyards to keep off Hail and Devils to give women an easie labor to procure good Husbands to Maidens or to kill them who are not so For I am sure many Images are renowned and sought after for such Blessings 4. But what horrible Boldness is this to conjure God in these consecrating Praiers thro his holy Names and Titles in behalf of such strange Purposes so far against the ordinary Course of his Providence and farther beyond his Promises And what Returns can they expect of such faithless sinful Praiers but Vanity and if something else but Gods wrath and their own Confusion If you take this Consecration as a Power I pray when and where appears it that God ever bestowed this Power either on his or the Popes Church Christ in the first times of the Church invested both his Apostles and other Servants with many great and extraordinary Gifts for casting out Devils for curing all sorts of Diseases for removing even Mountains but where either for enabling Images or for the doing either good or harm with Images They bestowed the Gifts of the Holy Ghost very often and as it were of course upon Believers at their Baptism but when and where upon Marbles or curiously wrought Pieces of Timber at their Consecration Where and when did they consecrate Pictures to sink Ships to rout Armies to raise storms and thunders and Hails as Roman Images will do sometimes When the blessed Apostles with the laying on of their hands could endue other men besides themselves with miraculous Power from above in order to prophesying and speaking Mysteries in strange Languages did they endue carved stones also with power to speak and to play to sing or weep and to do all those handsom Feats which are said of Roman Images Did ever S. Peter leave this Power with Simon Magus or the Pope or any consecrating Bishop that on what statue or Picture soever he should lay his hand and sprinkle water and pour Oil and burn Frankincense it should be forthwith elevated to high and mighty Performances If Peter and Paul had this Power and left it to succession God and his Saints must look to it for as Christ is at every turn liable by Consecration to be shut up in a Mass wafer God and his Saints are not quite free from consecrated Shapes and Images For the Consecration as a Power obliges God in a considerable manner to hear and report to his Saints whatsoever is praied for at their Images and ties as considerably the Saints to sollicite and intercede with God for the Request which he reports and often to come down themselves to execute and dispatch it God is bound I say by this consecrating Power which he is supposed to grant both he to hear and to report what is said before the Image for otherwise how could the Saints concerned in the Case understand it and what were the Power good for And the Saint is put to so much trouble For besides the trouble of solliciting the business which they understand they are praied for at their consecated Images how many Ramblings to and fro are they in equity obliged to unless all their Apparitions and Activities about their Images be mere Lies either to hear it the sooner or to give it a quicker dispatch And who knows not that Roman Images and Roman Saints in famous Churches especially are never or seldom asunder I call to witness all the long and holy Pilgrimages undertaken upon this score to Lauretta to Montserrat to S. Michael c. there purposely to meet either with the respective Saints or their assisting Vertue Divorum Divarum Numen that is the Godhead of the He or She Saint which is supposed to watch somewhere in or about his dear Image I call to witness the many Vows which are directed from all parts to these said Saints not in Heaven their proper Abode as one should think but to the Lady at Lauretta or Montaigue or to the good Saint at Padua Ardilliers Montegardia c. there helping men and women by their Images in such Churches And it is to this purpose that both these Images and Churches are consecrated with the greatest Pomp washt with the best sort of Holy water made sweet with the choicest Perfumes lighted day and night with the clearest Lamps and Candles dressed with the costliest Clothes and Laces served with the Curiousest Music the Images specially seated on the Eminentest Places of the Church and what would you have more honor'd with the compleatest Mass to invite thither out of Heaven these Holy guests And let Rome search out her Vatican and try whether in all Antiquity she can find an honest Example for such Consecrations and Attractives but either among old heathenish Priests or among old and new Sorcerers Now tho by this which I have said it appears clearly enough that the Matter the Form the Likeness the Power of Consecration or any thing else which you can find intrinsecal to an Image is both uneffectual and unchristian both as to make it a fit Object for any Religious service or to make it a sufficient Cause of any wonderful Blessing Nevertheless it is found by experience and however it is most certain in the common Apprehension of Roman Catholics that a very great number of Images by being consecrated and worshipped have attained to such a great degree and improvement of strength and Action above what either they are in their Nature or can be raised to by Art that it highly concerns all Christians seriously to inquire into the hidden Causes and Principles of such Extraordinary Atchievements For my part I do not believe and many Papists do not that all and every particular thing commonly reported of these Roman Images is