Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A62858
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Le Tombeau des controverses a grave for controversies, between the Romanist & Protestant, lately presented to the King of France / Englished by M.M.
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M. M.
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1673
(1673)
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Wing T1793; ESTC R15915
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30,396
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50
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Truth that in a word all who are Great Rational and Spiritual in the Kingdom would give their hearts and minds to the most just verity One may observe in the Debates of Religion that which falls out in all other quarrels One never yields to declared Enemies till after they have tryed the misfortune of Armes and then the Submission increaseth the rage of the Over-come and begets such grudges as are the Fathers or Children of desperate Actions but in a Cessation of Fight they speak together they hear one another they joyn their Interests and every one hath time to do Justice to himself and others If we could have in France so sweet a way to perfect Peace we should see a miraculous effect and sooner than one could believe of this desired Unity because every one being dis-engaged from the Authority of Strangers without fearing to be punished by the Kings Orders would bind himself willingly to his Natural Prince who is most Christian rather than to tye himself to the Roman Monarch who appears very jealous and hard to be served and so not parting their Hearts they would Unite their Souls If a French-man were in necessity of having a Dispensation for Marriage would he not be content rather to obtain it of the King than to buy it of Rome especially when in these days they cost four times more than ordinary to make war against Candia I believe not but that Pastors Ordained by the Kings Authority and Canonically received by the Churches would be as satisfactory and as fully Authorized as by the Power of Rome and when we shall have well thought upon the establishment of this sweet Agreement the Fruits which it will produce will be found to be the very things which the King desires for his People 28. This matter of Religion having been discoursed where there were many of both Religions one approved the thoughts of a person who maintained that the Roman-Catholiques whose minds are not cruelly inclined are more easily bent to the Reformed Piety than the Reformed to the Romish Religion The 1st Reason is that it is more easy to cease believing that which is uncertain than to begin to believe that which appears to be false for example I give you the Creed of the reality of the Body and Blood of Christ of the only and Supreme authority of the Pope of Purgatory and of the glory of the Saints departed whom they pray to The reality of Christs being carnally in the bread is so uncertain that it depends upon the well-making of the bread the right Ordination of the Priest upon the true Pronuciation of the Words upon the fixed attention of the Priest all these necessary conditions are only Supposed or believed by a Charitable Faith The Supream Authority of the Pope depends upon his lawful Election which is often so obscure and appears so clearly defective or so openly Criminal that many Decades of years have passed in which one knew not which Pope to obey if there were two chosen and where there is but one Simony is so ordinary that all Popes are Suspected of it Purgatory is proposed as a place in the hollow of the earth holy Authority speaks not a word of it the Ancients Creed speak nothing of it the Greek Church despiseth it eyes cannot see it reason cannot understand it the perfect grace of Christ doth not favour it The vision of Souls who come again cloathed in White or Red is much Suspected for a cheat and convicted of extravagancy this Mystery hath nothing more certain than the fear it gives the people and the good it brings to the Priests The glory of the souls departed to whom they pray cannot be known but by a popular opinion which hath but little discerning or by particular perswasions which may seduce by freindship or by Canonization of the Pope which may be deceived by a false report The mind of a Roman-Catholique finding in its self these proofs to be so uncertain as well in the Essentials as Circumstatials will have much less a do to deny his full consent than a Protestant to give his because Reason and Faith will fly uncertainties and cannot seek for them nor love them the second Reason is that Roman-Catholiques do believe all that which the Protestant do positively avow in respect of God of Jesus Christ of the blessed Virgin of the life and death eternal and generally of all mysteries universally received in all Churches where Christ is worshipped as God and known as a Redeemer In this common belief it is more easie for rational minds tolimit themselves to this Faith so ancient and general than to encrease it by Articles of humane faith which hath not the principles nor just Characters of divine Authority The third Reason is that the Roman Catholick may have the same comfort of Spirit by the Protestant Religion having laid aside the mysteries which are added to the Primitive Faith that which the Protestants may not do when they go to the Roman Communion A Christian soul may comfort it self without the reality of Flesh if it unites it self Spiritually to Jesus Christ by having respect to him knowledg of him and a sincere Love for him One is more satisfied to believe the grace of God capable to carry our souls to Heaven than to leave them at the bottom of a lake of fire The heart is more content to Establish its faith obedience and its good workes upon the Law and words of the Gospel then upon the Politiques of the Decretals and upon the Engin du droit Canon Prayers have much more justice and confiance when they are addressed to God who sees understands and fathoms all things than if they are carried at randome by the Imagination to get the favour of a Saint whose state is unknown to us These three Reasons which I set down amongst many of the same force prove that the Roman-Catholiques not being corrupted by the advantage of the World nor upheld by the power of a Soveraign or animated by violent passions are easily carried to the Approbation of that Faith Piety with which the Protestants content themselves But the Protestant cannot without violence or without interest submit to all the particulars of the Roman Faith because they make the Spiritual adoration carnall the Spirit of God the material Body of Christ Faith in God Fear Certainty Dubious Divinity humanity Pure and Efficacious grace a defective and weak merit 29. Let us not trouble our selves to dispute to which way pious Reason would turn if it were at full liberty whatsoever inspiration one might pretend to have to presage it is the event that must make the Prophecy known But to see some effects in favour of this desired Unity The intire liberty of the two Religions will make the only overture to this Royal design and then considering no body but the King next to the Majesty of God they will lose the fears which the thunder of the Vatican
loving force of that which is Good Fair and True 33. When his Majesty testifies his desire of the Agreement of his Subjects he wishes first the Glory of God and then the happiness and honour of that Church which bears the title of the French Church are we not all obliged by the Zeal of our Salvation and for the Interest of our most dear Country to carry our Affections highly towards his Majesties design let us procure the Glory of God and the happiness of the Church of France For the first let us not be so weak and erroneous to believe that the Honour of God is increased when that of Rome is the Authority of the King who is a Sacred Majesty is sufficient to make us Preach Understand and Observe the Will of God for the second are we so base to seek after with an unnatural Zeal the glory of the Roman Court to the prejudice of the French Church The Gentlemen of Sorbon making their Censures or judicious Observations on Odoricus Renaldus Continuer of Baronius have branded as notable faults that which is writ against the French Church and its Liberty These Liberties are not Licentiousness but as the Wise learnedly explain an exact Observation of the Ancient Rules of the Christian Faith Would to God that all the Kings Subjects upon this occasion had the love to hold themselves to the Rules of that Faith which is called Canons and ten or twelve Persons of each Religion had the Command to search them not in Modern Antiquity but Apostolique and in that of the first Councils they would easily find the French Liberty well established and the Dependence on Rome very ill-founded I ask if our French Church can be unjust if she takes the Reformation demanded by 5 Embassadours of France in several Reductions of the Council of Trent Would she not be as holy when she Regulates her Faith upon Divine words and her Manners upon the Sacred Laws of God as though she served the Statues of the Grandeur of Rome The Cardinal of Lorain did not he do a greater Service to the French Church when he endeavoured a Reformation in the Council of Trent than by that base Compliance which he had afterwards to the Will of the Pope Are not the Gentlemen of Sorbon generous and Christian when speaking of the works of Renaldus they say that the French-Church hath done nothing more profitable than the Pragmatick Sanction which Sanction was made at Burges in the year 1438. The King Assembled Bishops Princes and the great Lords of his Kingdom but because it bound the Authority of the Pope it was looked upon as a black attempt and that was it which rendred it praise-worthy His Majesty may if he please do somthing better he may apply the great Remedy to the Malady which hath broken our bones and eaten our flesh whereas others have ordered nothing but Lenitives and applyed them with a trembling hand Let us desire my dear Eutimius let us desire this holy Unity of one and the same Religion his Majesty who wisheth it desires our common good 't is an evil thing to hate as 't is an unhappiness to be hated The thoughts which I have newly explained to you shall end with this we should be happy if we had but one God in Heaven and one Monarch upon Earth I beseech the Almighty to inspire the King not to permit in his Kingdom a Companion with God and that he would propose ways to us which are only drawn from the Law and Truth of God to be the Rule of our Devotions his Majesty will acquire Glory in giving us Peace France will have all the Properties of being the One the True and the Good and we shall have Goodness of Soul Truth in Spirit and Unity of hearts FINIS