the Novatians unreasonable who preached Penance and denied the Fruit of it lib. 1. de Poenit. c. 16. Frustra dicitis vos praedicare Poenitentiam qui tollitis c. And lib. 2. cap. 3. Merendi gratia Sacramenti ad precandum impellimur hoc auferre vultis propter quod agitur Poenitentia Tolle gubernatori perveniendi spem in mediis fluctibus incertus errabit Tolle luctatori coronam lentus jacebit in stadio Tolle piscatori capiendi efficaciam desinet jactare retia In hopes of arriving at his Haven the Pilot steers his Ship The Wrestler strives in hope to throw his Adversary The Fisher casts his Nets in hope of catching some Fish All these would relent were they persuaded the thing they aimed at were impossible How then do you expect that Men should practise good Works when you teach them to hope for no good from them It were indeed to be wished that Men would serve God for God without regarding any Reward But that is a Perfection all do not arrive to and even the best are fain to use some other Motives A Fifth Your Clergy is utterly unfit to Direct and Instruct such Houses our Works have a greater influence on our Neighbors than our Words S. Jerom thought it incongruous that a Man with a full Belly should Preach Fasting And how can a Man Preach Chastity to others who comes himself from the Embraces of his Wife if he hath one or hath his Head full of Amourettes and Designs to get one if he be a Batchelor It is in vain therefore that you seek the advantage of those withdrawing Places from the noise and trouble of the World to those devout Solitudes your Lives are not fit for them your Doctrin is inconsistent with them and your past Actions have shut that Door of Mercy unto you As for Books of Devotion the Author of the Fiat Lux says you have Printed several such composed by ours under your own Names So you hang us and cherish our Writings as the Jews stoned the Prophets and canonized their Books You own we have many excellent Books all the World sees you have scarce any nor can rationally hope for any For he who writes a Spiritual Book ought to aim at two things The First to instruct the Understanding with Divine and Eternal Truths The Second to move the Will to a Hatred of Sin a Contempt of the World and to the Love of God above all things The first may be an Effect of Study but the second cannot be attained unto unless the Author be such himself He must as S. John be A burning and shining Light Joh. 5.35 Burn to God by a true and unfeigned Love of him Shine to Men by the clear Truths which he delivers He must feel within himself those Motions which he endeavors to communicate to his Reader Si vīs me flere dolendum est primum ipsi tibi A Soul possessed with Hope with Fear with Joy with Grief with Love with Hatred in fine with any Passion doth express not only the Thoughts but the Passion it self with Tropes proper by which means it not only informs the Understanding but also stirs the Will of the Hearer or Reader to like Inclinations Read Seneca's Epistles or other Moral Works or Cicero's you shall find a great many excellent Truths yet I never knew any Man the better in his Morality for them As they themselves notwithstanding those Lights were far from being Good Men as you may see in Lactantius lib. 3. Divin Instit from Chap. 13. On the contrary the reading of Saints Works hath a great force to move us to Good. S. Austin l. 8. Confess c. 6. says some were Converted by reading the Life of S. Antony Several have taken serious Resolutions of leading a Christian Life by reading those Confessions And I have known several moved to love Mental Prayer by reading S. Teresa's Works and to the Love of God by using those of S. Francis de Sales This is a great defect in all our Protestant Writers I will instance in two who seem each in his kind to overtop his Confreres quantum lenta solent inter viburna Cupressi The one Bishop Andrews who by Divisions and Subdivisions instructs well only sometimes verborum minutiis rerum pondera frangit The other is the Author of The whole Duty of Man who hath many excellent Truths and very practical as well as the first yet seem not to move the Will because of their cold way of treating their Doctrins They shine but they do not Burn. This Heat is not to be attained unto but by Prayer Which enflames our Heart with the Love of God In meditatione meâ exardescet ignis Psal 38.4 It is this Love which unites us to God and this Union makes us capable of doing great things For an Instrument must be in the Hand of the Workman to do compleatly what is intended if it be distant from him and not held but by a small Thred the Work will be difficult and imperfect if there can be any We are all the Instruments of God in order to all good Works especially in writing Spiritual Books in which if there be any thing good it must come from God the Fountain of all Good. The Apostles after the Ascension expecting the coming of the Holy Ghost Act. 1.14 continued with one accord in Prayer S. John Baptist althô sanctified in his Mothers Womb and designed for the Office of Praecursor and by consequence fitted from above for that Office yet he was in the Desert till the days of his shewing unto Israel Luc. 1.80 sequestring himself from the company of Men and conversing only with God and his Angels the far greatest part of his Life And the Word Incarnate not for any need of his own but to give us Example passed Forty days in Fasting and Prayer in a Desert before he began to Preach Mat. 4.2 And when he had begun he passed the Days with Men and the Nights in Prayer with his Heavenly Father Luc. 6.12 Erat pernoctans in oratione Dei. Species tibi datur forma tibi praescribitur quam debeas amulari says S. Ambr. l. 6. in Luc. This was the Practice of S. Greg. Naz. S. Basil S. Chrysostom And in later Times Ignatius de Loyola before he began the Society past a Retreat in a Cave at Manresa God alone is in peculiar manner the Father of Lights all is darkness but what is received from him The greatest Spiritualists that ever held a Pen even the Writers of Scripture at the same time they taught us received their Lesson from the Holy Ghost And first the Ears of their Heart were open to hear what God spoke to them Psal 84.9 Then they opened their Mouth to speak out of the abundance of their Heart to us Mat. 12.34 Now what Years what Months what Weeks or at least Days do you of the Ministry pass in Solitude in Prayer I find little footsteps of it in any
Answ From the beginning there hath always been observed an inequality of Sins I will omit modern Divines which you do not understand and Councils which you regard not Bede in cap. 5. Jac. distinguishes them and the manner to expiate them which in the Greek Church is still in use That same is observed by S. Austin Enchir. cap. 71. cited above Chap. 18. Sect. 2. The beloved Disciple 1 Joh. 5.16 17. speaks of sin unto death and others not such S. Paul 1 Cor. 6.9 10. gives a Catalogue of several Sins which exclude from Heaven Did all these concur to devise a way to enervate Repentance and that none till (a) Lib. 2. Inst c. 8. n. 59. John Calvin should discover the Plot What was Christ concerned in this Device who distinguishes Sins against the Holy Ghost from others Whither will these Men lead us or go themselves or what can be secure from those Tongues which spare no more the Doctrin delivered by Christ by the Apostles or the Primitive Fathers than that of Modern Divines I know all Sins are Offences against God yet I do not with the Stoicks think all Sins equal or him as great a Sinner who speaks an idle Word as him who kills his own Father The contrary Paradoxes may find place and be admired in Calvin by his deluded Followers but certainly no sober Man can approve them G. B. pag. 77. Their asserting that simple Attrition qualifies Men for the Sacrament Answ You do more for you think Attrition sufficient to Justifie without the Sacrament Pag. 76. having said that Repentance and Remission were always united you explicate Repentance to be a horror of sin upon the sense of its native deformity and contrariety to the Law of God which makes the Soul apprehend the hazard it hath incurred by it so as to study by all means possible to avoid it in all time coming This is all you say which any Divine knows to be only Attrition as not expressing clearly the only Motive of true Contrition Love of God above all things for his only Goodness Give glory to God Is it not true that you had heard of a Dispute beyond Seas between the Jansenists and their Enemies about the sufficiency of Attrition to Justifie with out the Sacrament And you never would take the pains to examine the Sentiments of either part or their Motives but relied upon the first apprehension which occurred to you Your Writings give a probable ground for this Conjecture G. B. pag. 76. All the Severities enjoyned by Papists for Penances do but tend to nourish the Life of Sin. Answ You may as well say the severity of the Laws against Robbers and Murtherers the Ax and Halter tend only to nourish Inclinatinations to rob and kill Sure your common Sense is far different from that of others else you would never advance these Paradoxes Neither will it serve your turn if you recur to the pecuniary Mulcts enjoyned to some For first you cannot blame those without blaming Scripture which recommends Alms-giving Dan. 4.24 as a means to redeem Sins Secondly Because worldly Men are not so willing to part with their Mony and how generous soever you are were you to give a Crown for every Vntruth you Print you would by that pecuniary Mulct not be encouraged to write as you do CHAP. XXII Theological Vertues G. B. p. 78. THAT which is next pressed in the Gospel for uniting the Souls of Mankind to God is that noble Ternary of Graces Faith Hope and Love. Answ You can never speak so much in commendation of the Theological Vertues as they deserve for their Merits surpass all we can say And if you compare the least of them with those called Moral Vertues it will out-shine Velut inter stellas Luna minores Yet Faith and Hope must do Homage to Charity or Love as to their Sovereign as to the End to which they are designed to the Fountain of their Life and Cause of their Value This I have said above yet I again repeat it for their sakes who so set up the Merits of Faith as to neglect Good-works without which Faith is dead Jac. 2.17 and place it before Charity without which Faith avails nothing 1 Cor. 13. I could wish our Adversaries would vouchsafe to read with attention that Chapter last cited in it they would see the Seat due to Charity the Queen of Vertues which seems at present hidden from the Eyes of those wise and prudent Men yet is revealed to little ones It is with great difficulty that I undertake a Comparison betwixt the Practice of these Vertues amongst Catholics and amongst Protestants because all Comparisons seem to be grounded at least on an appearance of equality in the Objects which in this Matter cannot be yet something must be said to make these presumptuous Men know their wants and weakness that they may seek to have them supplied and that I may proceed more clearly I will begin with the Definition of Faith and Heresie SECTION I. Of Faith. DIvine Faith is a firm assent to an obscure Truth revealed by Almighty God because it is revealed by him I say an obscure Truth because S. Paul Heb. 11.1 says the same Argumentum non apparentium A declaration of things not seen or known by natural Reason This is the Material Object as Divines speak the only Formal Object is the Veracity of God quia Deus est verax that is can neither be deceived or mistaken as being Omniscient nor deceive us as being all Good. To this the Testimony of the Church concurs as a Witness assuring that God delivered such a System of Truths So that is a Condition necessary to apply the Revelation to us who have not heard God speak or reveal S. Athanasius in his Symbol delivers as a Condition of Faith that it be retained Entire and Vndefiled Integra Inviolataque For seeing all is delivered by the same Authority those who believe not all (a) S. Thom. 2.2 q. 5. art 3. oppose that Authority delivering it and by consequence even what they believe they receive not purely upon their submission to that Authority speaking but for their own Caprichio or Reason or Pleasure That is properly called Heresie which word is deduced from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to choose And it signifies a choice of any thing whatsoever but by common use it is appropriated to that Choice * Tertul. l. de Praescript c. 6. Haereses dictae Graec◠voce ex Electionis interpretatione quâ quis sivè ad instituendas sivè ad suscipiendas eas utitur Hier. in Tit. 3. Haeresis Graecè ab Electione dicitur quod scilicet unusquisque id sibi eligat quod ei melius esse videatur Vide c. Haeresis 24. q. 4. Vide etiam August Epist 162. which is made of Points delivered as of Faith. We Catholics have Faith because we believe firmly those Truths that God hath revealed because he revealed them to the Church which as
in the Protestant no Fear and consequently no Hope which is accompanied always by Fear but in lieu of Hope that Vice which is called Presumption which is a sin against the H. Ghost Timor fundamentum salutis est says Tertul. lib. de cultu foeminarum c. 2. p. 265. Sperando enim timebimus timendo cavebimus cavendo salvi erimus contra si praesumamus neque timendo neque cavendo difficile salvi erimus Fear is the ground-work and foundation of our Salvation Our Hope is mingled with Fear this makes us take heed whence proceeds our security of Salvation On the contrary when we presume we grow careless and run great hazard of being lost for ever SECTION III. Of Charity or Love. CHarity or the Love of God above all things is much more esteemed and honored amongst us than amongst you You rank it contrary to the Apostle even with Faith or seat it on a lower Bench whereas we with the Apostle 1 Cor. 13.13 believe it to be the Commandment of Christ Joh. 15.12 The fulness of the Law Rom. 13.10 The bond of perfection Col. 3.14 which divides betwixt the Children of the Kingdom and those of Perdition S. Aug. The nuptial Garment with which we must enter into the Wedding Mat. 22.11 12. That is the form of Vertues Concil Trid. That without it all other Vertues gift of tongues power of working miracles knowledge of mysteries nay even Faith and Hope are nothing avail nothing are no more to be regarded than sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal c. 1 Cor. 13. In fine althô with Divines we are persuaded that these two great Vertues may be separated yet we hold their separation to be their ruin that as Charity is but superficial and not real without the light of Faith so Faith is cold without the warmth of Charity He who knows God without loving him is impious and he who loves him without knowing him aright is blind A Believer without Love is ungrateful a Lover without Knowledge is fensless so these two Vertues must assist one another We must aim to have a living Faith which works by Love Gal. 5.6 and Love is the proper work of Faith. Opus fidei dilectio Aug. tr 10. in Epist Jo. Love both gives to and receives strength from Faith. Charitas robur Fidei Fides fortitudo Charitatis S. I eo Serm. 7. in Quadrag In Heaven there is Love without Faith 1 Cor. 13.8.10 In Hell Faith without Love Jac. 2.19 Christians in this Life must have both for Love without Faith is the Love of Pagans and Faith without Love is the Faith of Devils but Faith with Charity is the Faith of the Children of God in this Life Fides quae per dilectionem operatur ipsa est Fides quae fideles Dei separat ab immundis daemonibus Aug. de gratiâ lib. Artib cap. 7. Thus we joyn together those two great Vertues this we believe this we teach of Charity whilst you out of an ill-grounded opinion of your Fac-totum-Faith relying on it for Remission of Sins Justification Perseverance and Salvation exhaust your Rhetorick so much in commendation of that your Darling that you have no room to commend Charity or Good-works Our Practice as much surpasses yours as to nourishing Charity as our Doctrin doth For seeing the Love of God and Love of our selves are opposit and the one withers as the other thrives their practice must be most proper to nourish Charity which aims most at mortifying Self-love and on the contrary those who foster Self-love must annihilate Charity Now what Practice can you shew for the mortification of the Body the quelling our Passions the renouncing of our Will What Documents do you give for these What Examples can you shew since your reformation of them You have never been able to find in the three Kingdoms a dozen Persons of either Sex who for so many years would sequester themselves from the Enjoyments of the World to serve God in voluntary Poverty Chastity and Obedience Whence comes this but from Self-love which abounds in them and the lack of the Love of God which might cement their Hearts together Whence comes that insupportable Pride which makes your Proselytes so refractory to God and his Vicars their Spiritual and Temporal Superiors That they are so tenacious of their extravagant Fancies so stubborn in their uncouth Resolutions so intractable in their Manners so humorsom in all their Actions and Conversations but a latent Pride the proper Offspring of Self-love and the Bane of Charity Look into 1 Cor. 13. you shall there find a description of Charity and its Qualities Charity suffereth long and is kind Charity envieth not Charity vaunteth not it self is not puffed up doth not behave it self unseemly seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh no evil rejoyceth not in iniquity but rejoyceth in the truth beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things Should I now examin the Life of generally all who deliver themselves to your Direction upon these Heads and shew how little of this appears in your Manners and how much there is quite contrary to it the Picture if sincere would fright you or confound you how great soever your Confidence be In fine the words of our Saviour to the Angel of Laodicea Apoc. 3.17 may be very well applied to you Thou sayest I am rich and encreased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked God open the eyes of your Heart to see this that so you may be moved to seek for Gold tried Spiritual Riches where it is to be found in the true Church SECTION IV. An Answer to what G. B. objects G. B. p. 78. ARE Papists not taught to confide more in the Virgin or their Tutelar Saints than in the Holiest of all Answ No we are taught no such thing G. B. ibid. Doth not the fear of Purgatory damp the hopes of future Blessedness Answ It doth not G. B. pag. 79. What impious Doctrin hath been Printed in that Church of the Degree of Love we owe to God Answ I know of no such Doctrin of the Degrees of Love due to God. I know that all Catholics applaud the Saying of S. Bernard Modus amandi Deum est amare sine modo I know that Divines require as well as S. Thomas a mediocrity in all Vertues except Charity That all Vertues are betwixt two Vices whereof one offends by exceeding the other by not reaching its due measure And this they assure even of Hope which is betwixt Presumption and Despair and of Faith which is betwixt a lightness of Heart believing all things and a hardness to believe any thing Love cannot be too great and so hath only one Vice contrary to it by defect loving too little Is this Doctrin Impious Hence what you say Some mincing it so as if they were afraid of his being too much beloved This
for Fasting our Blessed Saviour Fasted (c) Mat. 4.2 forty days and forty nights He foretells his Disciples (d) Mar. 2 20. fasting when the Bridegroom should be taken from them that is after his Ascension He directs us how to Fast and promises a Reward (e) Mat. 6.17 to our Fastings when duly performed He teaches that Fasting (f) Mat. 17.20 Mar. 9.29 gives us a power over the Devils When any Work of great moment was to be done Fasting was used (g) Acts 13.2 As the Disciples or Apostles ministred to the Lord and Fasted the Holy Ghost said With Fasting (h) Acts 14.23 and Prayer S. Paul and S. Barnabas were Consecrated A postles These with Fasting and Prayers (i) 2 Cor. 6.5 ordained Bishops in every Church And S. Paul several times speaks of his Fastings (k) 2 Cor. 11.27 In watchings in fastings Again In hunger and thirst in fastings often What was the Practice of the Christians of the Second Age Tertllian will teach us Apolog. pag. 40. cap. 71 where having reproached the Pagans with their Feastings in Times of Public Calamities he represents the contrary Life of Christians Nos verò jejuniis aridi omni continentiâ expressi ab omni vitae fruge delati in sacco cinere volutantes invidiâ coelum tundimus Deum tangimus cùm misericordiam extorserimus Jupiter honoratur You Feast says he but we dried up with Fasting living in perfect Continency abstaining from all Contents of this Life prostrate in Sackcloth and Ashes charge Heaven with the Odium of afflicting Persons so much afflicted and when we have by these Penitential Works forced God to take pity of the World Jupiter is honored by you For the third Age see what Moses Maximus and other Confessors required of Penitents Jejunio extenuari that they should grow lean with Fasting All the subsequent Ages give as many Testimonies to the Duty and Advantages of Fasting as there are are of any Work of Piety This the Fathers teach in their Sermons the Bishops commanded in their Canons the faithful Practise in their Lives and all recommend by their Example Nay Protestants themselves own this Truth The Author of the Duty of Man Sunday 5. n. 34. To this Duty of Repentance says he Fasting is very proper to be annexed the Scripture usually joyns them together If you desire to know the Fruits of Fasting S. Thom. 2.2 q. 147. a. 1. names three 1. To mortifie and curb our Bodies 2. To raise our Mind to Heavenly things 3. To punish in our selves the ill use of some Creatures by depriving our selves of the use of others A fourth Reason is to increase Merit Grace and Glory Virtutem largiris praemia says the Church in Praef. Quad. SECTION II. Prayer PRayer being a raising of our Souls to God it exposes our Understanding to the Divine Light and places our Will in the warmth of Divine Love Wherefore nothing can be more efficacious to clear our Mind from its Ignorance and Darkness nor to purge our Will from its depraved Affections and Passions It is a Key which opens the Treasure of God's Mercy and opens our Heart to receive its Effects It is a River of Benediction whose Waters cleanse our Soul from its Imperfections moisten our Heart make our good Purposes bud forth and flourish and fill our Will with the Fruits of Vertue It is often recommended in Scripture See (a) Mar. 13.33 watch and pray Pray (b) Mat. 26.41 that you enter not into tentation (c) Luc. 16.8 You must always pray and never faint All Places and all Times are fit for Prayer God limits neither but promises to hear us always Ask and you shall receive Whatsoever you shall ask my Father in my name he will grant it you Particularly Remission of Sins is annexed to it Hear S. Austin Enchir. c. 71. De quotidianis brevibus levibusque peccatis sine quibus haec vita non ducitur quotidiana oratio fidelium satisfacit Eorum est enim dicere Pater noster qui es in coelis qui jam Patri tali regenerati sunt ex aquâ Spiritu sancto Delet omninò haec Oratio minima quotidiana peccata Delet illa à quibus vita fidelium sceleratè etiam gesta sed poenitentiâ in melius mutatâ discedit si quemadmodum veraciter dicitur Dimitte nobis debita nostra Ita veraciter dicatur sicut nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris Id est si fiat quod dicitur The daily Prayers of the Faithful satisfie for those daily light and small sins which are incident to all in this Life these we call Venial Sins for it belongs properly to those to say Our Father which art in Heaven who are regenerated by Water and the Holy Ghost to such a Father This Prayer blots out little sins It hath a vertue also to carry away the guilt of greater sins in those who are repentant of them provided they as truly forgive as they ask to be forgiven that is they do what they say Sir how different was S. Austin's Judgment from yours He thought those Prayers efficacious to blot out venial and even mortal sins and you think the prescribing them Ridiculous Saying the Penitential Psalms is an Object of Laughter to you Were there any Church Discipline among you or had your Prelates any true Zeal for any part of Devotion you would be forced to change your note the saying the Psalms being the only part of Devotion which you retain But it seems Writing against Popery hath a Vertue to sanctifie all Impiety as acting against it did excuse all Sacrilege I never heard any Man moved to Laughter with reading the Psalms and I have known many moved by them to Compunction to a new Life and to the Love of God. Let S. Austin who experienced it himself speak lib. 9. Confess cap. 4. Dulce mihi sit ô Domine confiteri tibi quibus internis me stimulis perdomueris quemadmodum me complanaveris humiliatis montibus collibus cogitationum mearum tortuosa mea direxeris aspera lenieris quas tibi Deus meus voces dedi cùm legerem Psalmos David cantica fidelia sonos pietatis excludentes turgidum spiritum Quas tibi voces dabam in Psalmis illis quomodo in te inflammabar ex eis accendebar eos recitare si possem toto orbe terrarum adversus typhum generis humani I take a delight O my Lord to confess to thee with what inward Goads thou didst subdue me and by what Means thou didst bring me down levelling the greater and lesser Mountains of my Thoughts How thou didst streighten my crookedness and smooth my roughness Into what Exclamations did I break out O my God when I read the Psalms of David those faithful Canticles those pious Sounds which banish all proud Spirits How I cried out in reading them How I was inflamed in the love of thee how I