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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58886	Dr. Sherlock's preservative considered the first part, and its defence, proved to contain principles which destroy all right use of reason, fathers, councils, undermine divine faith, and abuse moral honesty : in the second part, forty malicious calumnies and forged untruths laid open, besides several fanatical principals which destroy all church discipline, and oppose Christs divine authority : in two letters of Lewis Sabran of the Society of Jesus.	Sabran, Lewis, 1652-1732.	1688 (1688)	Wing S217; ESTC R16398	73,086	90

we commonly address our Prayers immediately to him so he can guard us without the help of Angels and sanctifie us immediately without the use of Sacraments but he hath often declared that he will have his Servants honored and by Ezechiel that he had sought Cap. 14. amongst Men some one that would interpose betwixt his Anger and Sinners and disarm his Justice and we look on the blessed Angels Apostles Martyrs and other Saints as those whose Prayers God sets betwixt us and his Justice that his Mercy moved by the efficacious Blood of our One Mediator may protect and bless us This account doth I conceive sufficiently discover the injurious Misrepresentations and Calumnies which Dr. Sherlock hath fastned upon our Worship under the odious Notion of Idolatry Six Misrepresentations and Calumnies contrived by Dr. Sherlock in his Second Section concerning the Love and Mercy of God and Pardon of Penitent Sinners 1. THE Church of Rome teaches that Christ hath Redeemed Fol. 2● us from Eternal tho' not from Temporal Punishments 2. That Men suffer in Purgatory when the Fol. 18 19. Guilt of Sin is before taken away and the Sinner is in a perfect State of Grace and needs no Amendment that is for no Reason that make it either Good or Just for them to suffer 3. That the Blood of Christ could not expiate for the Temporal Fol. 27. Punishment of Sin which the Merits of some Supererogating Saints or the Pope's Indulgences or the Priests Masses can redeem us from How then could that Blood make Expiation for Eternal Punishment If his Interest in the Court of Heaven cannot do the less how can it do the great 4. Again the Church of Rome pretends that Fol. 28 29. Saints in Heaven Pray for us by way of Interest and Merit not of humble Supplication God indeed commanded us to Pray for one another because 't is a mutual Exercise of Love and Charity of Forgiveness of our Enemies and of other Vertues but this only becomes those who live and converse together in this World. 5. That Church takes the Virgin Mary Fol. 30. Angels and Saints for Mediators to incline God to be good to peculiar Persons whereas the Mediation of Christ was not to make God good and kind who before was infinitely good but to reconcile God's Goodness with his Wisdom and Justice and to make it Wise and Just in God to do good to Sinners 6. They believe Christ is not Merciful or Pitiful Fol. 31. enough That his Virgin Mother hath tenderer and softer Passions and such Interest with or Power over him in the Right of a Mother that she can have any thing of him And likewise they suppose other Saints to be much more Pitiful than he Dr. Sherlock's Arguments against Purgatory and our recourse to Saints for their Prayers YOU may call the Doctrine of Purgatory Justice you Fol. 16. may call it Vengeance but Love it is not I should rather chuse to fall into nothing when I die than to endure a thousand years Torments to be happy for ever 'T is an extravagant Notion That God may forgive Sins and yet punish us for them What is it Men desire when they desire Pardon Is it not Fol. 17. that they may not be punished 'T is something that God exchange the Eternal Punishment due to Sin in Hell for the Temporal of Purgatory but would it not be a perfecter Expression of Love and Goodness to have remitted the Temporal Punishment also The Texts that say that Christ died Fol. 20 21 22. for our sins hath made atonement for sin is a propitiation thro' faith in his blood if they do not signifie that a penitent Sinner shall be delivered from all the Punishment due to his Sins how shall he be sure tho' his Sins are Pardoned and he Justified that he shall not be Damned for ever Redemption from the Curse of the Law cannot signifie that we shall not be Eternally punished unless it signifie that we shall not be punished at all and therefore not in Purgatory neither There is no Fol. 24. Threatning against Sin in all the Gospel but Eternal Death all other Punishments are inflicted by virtue of this Law consequently he who is delivered from this Curse of the Law Eternal Punishment is delivered from the whole Punishment due to Sin. 2 Cor. 4. 18. The things which are seen that is of this World are temporal but the things which are not seen that is of the next World are eternal This is a Demonstration that Fol. 25. there is no Purgatory Who believes in Christ shall never die 11. Joa 25. therefore good Men must not go to Purgatory Fol. 26. which is as much perishing and dying as Hell but not so long otherwise Purgatory may be Everlasting Life for all I know and so the Pains of it Eternal Could I believe our Saviour could leave his Members in Purgatory Fire which burns as hot as Hell I should have mean thoughts of his Kindness and not much relie on him for any thing when a merciful Man cannot see a Beast in torment without relieving it To imagin that we want any Mediator to God but only our Fol. 27. High-Priest who Mediates in virtue of his Sacrifice is a reproach to the Divine Goodness God will never be persuaded Fol. 28. by any Intercession to shew Mercy to unfit Objects that is to Fol. 29. Impenitent Sinners He that spared not his Son but delivered him up for us all how shall be not with him also freely give us all things It was not for want of Goodness or that he needed Entreaties that he gave his Son to be our Mediator Behold not one omitted all the Arguments which bear up the most outragious Declamations of this Man against the Church of God. The Catholic Doctrin about Purgatory and Saints Intercession and its evident Grounds opposed to Dr. Sherlock's Sophistical Cavils WE call the Doctrin of Purgatory God's Justice tempered with infinite Mercy And thô 't is in our power by the Mercy of God to attain Salvation without suffering in Purgatory yet we judge the Possession of God so infinite a Good that we believe that Man unworthy ever to see the Face of God who declares with Dr. Sherlock that did God offer him the Eternal possession of himself on this Condition that he should first suffer a thousand years he would absolutely refuse it We own two sorts of Guilt in Sin First an Aversion from God and slighting of that infinite Good Next an Irregular Affection to some transient Good or Pleasure which the Prophet expresses by the forsaking the Fountain of living Waters and seeking the leaking Cisterns To the First is due an Eternal loss of God's Grace and Glory to the Second the Punishment of a sensible Pain We believe that thro' Christ we obtain full remission of both Evils at once whenever we are duely disposed to receive it to wit when a

shall not be forgiven in this world nor in the world Matt. 12. to come which could not be truly said as St. Augustin observes Except there were some who altho' not in this World yet Ibid. l. 21. c. 24. in the next might be forgiven A Proof so often urged by the holy Doctor St. Bernard against the Heretics of his time Lib. de anima c. 35. 58. Lib. 4. Eq. 2. Purgatory then is that Prison as Tertullian and St. Cyprian observe into which many are cast when they are no more in the Way and have been presented to the Judge till they pay the last Farthing of which Christ speaks St. Paul teaches the Corinthians this Article of Faith when beside that general Fire which goeth before the Face of the Lord in that Day which shall be revealed by Fire and the Fiery Trial of Judgment it self where the work of every one of what kind it is the Fire 1 Cor. 3. shall try he asserts a third purging Fire of which he says If any ones work burn he shall suffer detriment but himself shall be saved yet as through Fire A Doctrin most suitable to God's Justice and Mercy for says the often cited St. Augustin In Psalm 37. Why are some said to be saved by Fire Because they build upon the Foundation of Faith and Charity Hay Wood Stubble but if they would build Gold Silver and Precious Stones they might be secure from both Fires not only from that Everlasting which shall punish the Impious Eternally but from that which shall AMEND them who shall be saved by Fire Who altho' they be saved by Fire yet that Fire will be more painful and grievous than any thing that can be suffered in this Life not for want of Mercy in God but because he punishes Sin whereever he sees it as he essentially hates it Yet Christ truly obtained remission from all Temporal as well as Eternal Pain whence whoever is regenerated by Baptism as the same Doctor observes he not De Civit. Dei l. 21. c. 26. only is not adjudged to Eternal Torments but neither doth he suffer after Death any Purgatory Pains if he die in that State of recovered Innocency Now I would know whether God be less Merciful because Ezechiel puts this Sentence in his Mouth Lay her naked upon the Coals until her Brass be heated Ezech. cap. ●● and all her Tin be fried out because that says the same Doctor 50 Homil. Hom. 16. there idle Words and wicked or impure Cogitations there the multitude of lesser Sins which have infested the Purity of her nobler Nature shall seeth forth there the Tin or Lead which have obscured the Divine Image shall be consumed all which might here with Alms-deeds and Tears after a more short and easie way have been purged from the Soul. Is it not just as St. Gregory Oratione ad Dom. Nyssen observes That all vicious Affections be purged either in this World by a sober course of Life or after our departure hence by the Furnace of Purgatory Fire Is God not Merciful because Revel 21. Nothing defiled can enter that Kingdom Was St. Paul injurious to the Mercy of Christ when he chastised his Body to make up what was wanting in himself not in Christ of the Passions of Christ that is such Dispositions as Gods Justice requires in us that his Mercy through Christ may take effect Those Sectaries I am sure of Dr. Sherlock's Persuasion who will not own any one Action of the Just to their very last gasp to be freed from Sin are very injurious to Gods Justice if those Sins are no where to be punished with which they grant each Christian to go out of this Life But those Punishments may last so long That depends of us let us but possess as perfect a Charity as God offers us and by his holy Grace enables us to purchase and we shall all avoid Purgatory Thus a Martyr's perfect Charity sets him out of the reach of those Flames As St. Cyprian observes One Lib. 4. Ep. 2. thing it is a long time punished for Trespasses to be amended and purged by Fire and another to abolish all Faults by suffering for Christ No one suffers in Purgatory because God is not infinitely Merciful but because he refuses to love that infinite Mercy as much as he ought and God requires 'T is still through Gods Mercy in our power during Life to shorten those Sufferings For as Origen warns us if any one bring a Hom. 6. in Exod little Iniquity that little Lead ought to be consumed by Fire and if more heavy and leaden Metal he is more burnt that more may be wasted God were not Just if as Daniel saw him a fiery and violent Flood did not run before his Face to consume and punish Sin. 'T is by reason of our Sins as St. Augustin observes Dan. 7. 10. that some shall pass through a fiery Lake and horrible Shallows full of burning Flames as much as shall remain of the Dross of Sin so long shall the delay of the Passage be This Justice of God it is which made all holy Men ever to fear and tremble at the approaches of Death and Judgment whilst the very lewdest Livers amongst Sectaries grounded on the security of a prodigious Presumption if the Minister but tells them they have made their Peace with God tho' in their whole Life they have never done that Penance for their Sins without which the Word of God assures them they shall altogether perish tho' perhaps they never shed a Tear for their Sins tho' destitute of the help of the Sacraments yet affront Gods Justice by a bold unconcerned Confidence whilst they presume on a Mercy never promised to so undisposed Souls Different was the Sense of the great Doctor St. Hilary Since no one Cum nemo veniens in conspectum ejus mundus sit quomodo desiderabile ejus potest esse judicium in quo subeunda sunt gravia illa expiandae à peccatis animae supplicia says he appears spotless before God how can we meet his Judgment with that hope and confidence in which that unwearied Fire and those grievous Punishments are to be undergone which Expiate a Soul from Sin. That there remains then after the Guilt of Sin is forgiven such an Obligation to undergo Punishment to pass by all the Greek and Latin Fathers all those Texts of Scripture make it plain which deliver unto us the necessity of Penance and its due Fruits Now whoever goes out of this World not having satisfied this Obligation hath such a moral unworthiness as bars him till it be complied with from the sight of God. And those who say that it were a greater Mercy in God to remit all the Punishment due to Sin blame Christ for Preaching Penance and account him on that score less merciful To say with Dr. Sherlock That Men desire nothing when they ask Pardon but meerly

not to be Punished is to declare they value not Gods Love and Grace like Children but meerly fear the Lash like Slaves and all Catholics look on such a Disposition excluding positively all regard to Gods Grace and Love as incapable of receiving forgiveness of Sins Christ hath made Atonement for our Sins but his Blood is to be applied by Baptism and in case of Relapse by perfect Contrition or Penitential Works during Life or Punishment after Death before all Pain due to Sin be remitted thus applied it frees us from the whole Curse of the Law. No Suffering or Punishment is the Death of the Soul as Dr. Sherlock supposes but only the privation of Gods Grace which is her Life and which is enjoyed through Christ as much in Purgatory as by penitent Saints on Earth in their penitential Sufferings and the mercy of our Lord appears as much in purging his Members from all Stains of the least sin by the Fire of Purgatory as here by the toilsom Labors of a penitential Life such as his dearest Servants were ever purified by St. Paul never taught that all things that are not seen or of another World are Eternal or else God would be Eternally Judging and so never Rewarding his Servants or Punishing his Enemies so that Dr. Sherlock's Demonstration hath not so much as the least appearance of a seeming Reason Having thus represented our Faith I conclude with S. Augustin Enchirid. c. 10. against Dr. Sherlock It cannot be denied but that the Souls of the Dead are relieved by the Piety and Devotion of their living Friends as often as the Sacrifice of our Mediator is offered or Alms-deeds are done in the Church for them but these things do bring profit only to those who in their Life-time did merit to receive profit by the like after Death For there is a certain State of Life neither so good that it needeth not these Helps after Death nor so evil but that it may be helped by the same I have already Answered in the first Section all those Calumnies which are repeated here concerning the Blessed Saints Intercessions for us Our Doctrin directly opposite to the slanderous Misrepresentations here offered is 1. We look on the Prayers of Saints as meerly humble Supplications for we hold that Christ only standeth our Mediator challenging he alone in Justice and by his own Merits to be heard in favor of us 2. We conceive Charity to be at least as proper to and inseparable from the Seraphical Souls of Saints as from any of Gods Servants on Earth and as much inclining them to Pray for their Fellow-Members of Christ's Mystical Body engaged here below in Miseries and Dangers 3. We never required the Prayers of Saints to render God good and merciful but only when joyned with our Prayers to render these a fitter Object of Gods Mercy and to reconcile the Effects thereof to his Wisdom and Justice 4. Whatever pity the Saints may have on us we look on it as on a small St●●l●e situ●●e Drop compared to the Ocean of Gods infinite Mercy of which that very Pity and the Intercession of Saints is a free Gift to us given with all other Blessings together with and as an Effect of his greatest Gift to wit his Eternal Son with whom in whom and by whom he hath given us all things This Faith of ours doth I conceive most evidently expose the shameless Calumnies which Dr. Sherlock hath disfigured her by Thirty Misrepresentations and Calumnies offered by Dr. Sherlock in his Third and Fourth Sections and some of his Phanatical Principles NEver did Man speak more without Book without Truth and without any respect to Shame or Conscience this Preservative deserving more the Fate of defamatory Libels than those two which he prises and recommends Fol. 78. No Provincial Letters Jesuite Morals burnt by the Hangman Narrative of the Minister Oats contains more Lies and Calumnies against the Persons of Catholics than the Minister Sherlock's Preservative against their Religion the latter is infinitely more Impudent because he accuses with an equally shameless Scurrility not single Persons but most Princes Bishops Universities Kingdoms of the Christian World and all the General Councils to boot I do own and will maintain it That no man ever Lyed in Print with more Confidence ever was so deafned by Passion to all the Reproaches of Conscience and Honor And had not a long Custom of saying any thing in the Pulpit tho' never so monstrously false that could render Catholic Religion odious or ridicule it by disfiguring it dictated to his peevish Distemper this Second Part of his Preservative it would not I conceive have been possible that all the Gall that can drop from a Christians Pen should in one Pamphlet have heaped so many and so defamatory Calumnies Take the following Instances 1. The Catholics by unwritten Traditions that make up a part Fol. 73 74 75. of their Rule of Faith mean such things as may be concealed from the knowledge of the World for 1500 Years never heard of before in the Church of God kept very privately and secretly for several Ages and totally unwritten By Tradition we mean a Revelation received from God by the Apostles conveighed by the continual teaching and preaching of Lawful Pastors strengthned by the visible practice of Christian Churches found in the Books of succeeding Fathers and Historians though not in Canonical Scripture which St. Paul recommended 1 Tim. 6. 2 Thes 2. de Sp. S. c. 27. Ipsam fidei praedicationem ad nudum nomen Contrahemus to Timothy faithfully to be kept as a depositum And commanded the Thessalonians to observe which if it be laid by says St. Basil We shall retain of the Preaching of the Faith but an empty Name and which is delivered to us as Preached by the Apostles by the same means and with the same security at least as the Letter of the Gospel is conveighed to us as written by them 2. They teach several External Observances to be much more Fol. 79. pleasing to God and therefore much better in themselves than true Gospel Obedience Moral or Evangelical virtues that they supply the want of true virtue Compensate for sin and make men great Saints We teach that Gods inherent Grace only Sanctifies us and that whatever External observance void of Evangelical virtue is a sinful Hypocrisie and only can make one a greater sinner 3. They teach that when a Priest Absolves men that forsake Fol. 81 82. not their sins God must confirm the Sentence of his Minister and therefore they are Absolved and need not fear whence they believe that God can be reconciled to sinners whilst they remain in their sins And therefore they must believe that God hath given power to his Priests to Absolve those whom he could not Absolve himself We teach that to receive Absolution without a real forsaking of our sins in lieu of forgivness of them adds a hainous Sacrilege 4.

Sacrament considered with the Eyes of Faith and believe that this Sacrifice helps much to a holy life but not at all without it 30. Amongst them one can Merit for twenty so there is no need above one in twenty should be Good. Merit with us is Personal and not Communicative no one is better in the sight of God for the Piety of another and in what ever sense one may satisfie Gods Justice for the Penitential works he exacts from an other whose sin is remitted no one hath a title to the least degree of Glory and consequently hath any Merit by an others Sanctity or Merit Many more of this Man's Calumnies I pass by these Thirty and the other Ten I have laid down being a clear Evidence that he is the most confident Calumniator that ever Preached or Writ who dares say any thing without the least respect to Truth without any regard to Charity Honor or Conscience Now Sir give me leave to offer you some few of the many Fanatical Principles he advances as destructive to what you call your Church as to Christianity in general that in your second thoughts you may blush if you are capable of it for having set your Name to them and Licensed them to the Press The First God being a Spirit must not be sought for in Houses Fol. 48 50 51. of Wood and Stone because he must be worshipped in Spirit he must not be worshipped by any material or sensible Representations Those words Except your Righteousness exceeds the Righteousness of the Fol. 38. Scribes and Pharisees you shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven cuts off every thing that is External in Religion Do not these Principles remit all Christians to the Silent Meetings of Quakers Exclude the use of Churches rather than Barns Singing of Psalms and such other material Representations of the God whom we Praise The Second God and Christ are not present in the Assemblies Fol. 37. of Christians by any Figurative or Symbolical Presence There is no Symbolical Presence of God under the Gospel 'T is a great Fol. 34 55. Absurdity to talk of more Symbolical Presences of God than one for a Symbolical Presenc confines the unlimited Presence of God to a certain Place in order to certain Ends as for Example to receive the Worship which is paid him Now to have more than one such Presence as these is like having more Gods than one To say nothing of the absurdity of this Discourse which makes that Christian an adorer of two Gods who by Faith adoring God in Heaven and in his own Soul worships him in both places doth not this destroy the very Essence of your Sacrament the Bread and Wine in the Lord's Supper which you own to be a Symbolical Presence of Christ The Third If God be better worshipped before an Image than Fol. 53 54. without one then the Worship of God is more confined to that Place where the Image is I cannot see how to avoid this whereas there is no appropriate Place of Worship under the Gospel And 't is the same tho' the Image be not appropriated to any Place but carried about with us for still the Image makes the Place of Worship This is an Argument for all Dissenters from you and all Fanatics against a Set Liturgy a Set Form of Prayer for if God be better worshipped by a Set Form of Prayer than without it then the Worship of God is more confined to that Place where that Set Form of Prayer that Set Liturgy is used and 't is the same tho' no set Place be appointed for that Set Form of Prayer c. The Parallel is exact The Fourth Having laid this Principle All that is meerly Fol. 34 36. External in Religion is taken away all Rites believed to be in themselves Acts of Religion and to render the Worshipper acceptable to God and this because God must be worshipped as a meer Spirit To defend the use of Baptism and the Lord's Supper he brings this only Reason Mankind by Sin hath forfeited all natural Right to Gods Favor they can challenge nothing but by Promise and Covenant such Covenants require a mutual Stipulation on both Sides Therefore they must be transacted by some visible and sensible Rites whereby God obliges himself to us and we to him Is not this last Inference destroyed by the former Principle taking away all Rites that are Acts of Religion all that is meerly External And on this Principle ought he not to teach that the mutual Stipulation betwixt God and us must be made by his interior Graces and our interior Worship because God must be worshipped as a meer Spirit Upon whatever account that interior Covenant requires a visible sensible Mark and our actual Communion with Christ another all the Communications of Gods Graces to us all our return of Worship and Adoration will equally admit of sensible Signs and Rites To avoid farther Prolixity I will end with the following Principle of his most injurious to Christ and an open and never to be coloured Blasphemy Fifth Principle There never was never can be an Infallible Fol. 68 69 70. Judge Christ himself was not an Infallible Judge altho' he were an Infallible Teacher I must my self judge of his Doctrin before I know that he is Infallible therefore Men were to judge of Christ's Doctrin before they believed him and they are thus to this day to Examin his Doctrin by the Law and Prophets and he never required that they should submit to his Infallible Authority without Examination He could not be an Infallible Judge obliging Men to receive all his Dictates as Divine Oracles without Examination 'T was impossible to know him to be Infallible but by judging of his Doctrin by the agreement thereof with the Principles of Reason and of former Revelations Doth a Christian teach this and a Christian approve and license it What JESVS our God blessed for evermore even when owned the Son of God even from us Christians cannot exact a Submission to his Infallible Authority without Examination of the truth of what he says by comparing it with the Principles of Human Reason He cannot oblige us to receive all his Dictates as Divine Oracles Was Christian Faith was the Author of it JESVS ever thus affronted Did the Apostles err did they act against Sense and Reason when they believed what he had taught of his Flesh being meat indeed Joh. 6. v. 69. only because he had the words of Eternal Life because his Dictates were Divine Oracles Were all men of this mind Christ would not indeed find any Faith on Earth What tho' we certainly know Christ to have taught and declared a Truth must we not upon his word submit to it and embrace it till we have consulted our Reason and found it can object nothing against it Were the weapons of S. Paul's 2 Cor. 10. 5. warfare such as could humble what raised it self against the science of God and bring into captivity all understanding in obedience to Christ and had the Word and Preaching of Christ less power Christ teaches it is not yet a sufficient Motive for me to believe Should an Angel from Heaven teach me this I would with St. Paul return him no other Answer than Anathema and do you Sir approve this Do you License men to teach to Christians they are not to submit to Christ's Word as to Divine Oracles that they must make themselves his Judges and Examin by their Reason whether he spoke truth or no Well Sir were it but not to give occasion to the spreading so horrid Blasphemies against our Lord and God I take my leave of you and of such Books Licensed by you and end with this Profession of my Catholic Faith Christ is an Infallible Judge I must not Judge of his Doctrin but believe it and submit to him I submit to his Infallible Authority without Examination I receive all his Dictates as Divine Oracles If tho' Summoned by me you still refuse to Subscribe to this Doctrin I will obey St. John's Counsel I will have nothing to do with you nor return to you so much as Ave or any Greeting but content my self with Subscribing to this Profession of my Faith LEWIS SABRAN Of the Society of JESUS