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
by the Roman Church must be a greater Temtation For what would you have more temting then this By this saving Office say they h Al. Gazaeus supra pag. 69. if you use it now especially when his Holiness hath improved it with Apostolical Indulgences 1. You may lay claim to Heaven not merely upon the title of mercy from God but by that of Justice and Condignity as your own Right 2 You may satisfy Divine Justice both for your sins and the sins of others 3. What would you have more by these Praiers whatsoever you can ask in the Name of the Savior and in the name of the Savioress Mary too you shall receive it For who can be so incredulous as not to be sure to have all in order to his real Good and Salvation by this form of Praier thus approved of by the Church recommended by God himself they mean the little Baby who bids men to pray to his Mother and in an especial manner consecrated to the Virgin Maries Service What a hot friend she proves to be and how Zealous to undertake for the silliest Fellow that is her Client S. Damian can best tell you i Cardin. Damian l. 2. Ep. 14. A pitiful sottish Man who had no spark of Grace in him but that he could sing Ave Maria and bow passing by her Altar had bin deprived of his Pension by a Bishop who thought himself bound in Conscience to free the Church from such a Wretch But then the Goddess comes by night and falls foul upon the Prelat and being seconded by an Angel who had a burning Taper in one hand and a lusty whip in the other What saies he wrong'st thou my Chaplain and takest thou from him what thou didst not give At last after many sound stripes the Bishop being taught good manners was glad to cry out peccavi and to restore to that worthy Man the stipends which he had kept from him This is but a temporal Concern but here is one which is Eternal It is somewhat long but it concerns all Men to know it and I have it from the same Saint k Card. Damian supra An ugly Fellow named Bassus who died a sudden death had the good luck to die so in coming from one of our Ladies Churches He having bin in his Coffin the greatest part of the night after his death rose up out of it suddenly both affrighted and affrighting others for with a terrible tone he cried for Praiers Litanies to scare away those ugly Spirits who watch'd for him about the Room and at last being come to himself for Ave Maria and Holy Water had soon frighted the Devils away when my poor Soul saies he parted from me presently came on some black Troopers this Fellow said they is our prize for he hath ever lived after the Flesh and never knew what the Spirit was His good Angel could say nothing but that he was dead in the service of their Mistress the Queen of Heaven and that whosoever hath her favor cannot perish by the power of any Judg. To this they make bold to reply that God being Just would do nothing for a Sinner to their prejudice and thereupon the Devils grew so earnest after their Prey and the Angels on the other side so remiss in keeping their charge that the Wretch was upon the point of being given up as he deserved when behold the Queen of Heaven came among them and an Army of Celestial Soldiers with her and with such a splendor besides that the Devils durst not look up Nevertheless with reverence they protested against the wrong which the former Angels had done them in detaining from them their just Prey and that if God and she were just they could not rescue such a sinner out of their hands The Queen confessed he had bin so but yet her Son and Lord would never suffer that one who had ended his daies in her service as this Fellow had done in going to visit her Church should ever suffer their Cruelty and withal he had confessed tho he had not the time to do Penance Hence the Devil took a fit time to tell her what a Villain he was and what ugly Abomination he had never confessed and that is true saies the revived Man of himself at which the Mother of Mercy started but at last after a kind of modest silence in reverence to this plain truth having somewhat recovered her self It is as you say saies she but yet of course Mercy goes before Judgment Go back again to thy Body saies she to him and then confess to such a Priest whom she named what these Spirits lay to thy charge and in my name charge such Friars whom she named also to take upon them thy Penance Then come again without delay for I will not stir hence till thou come The Rascal being confessed saies the Cardinal Damian and the Holy Friars having taken upon themselves the satisfaction enjoined him by the Confessor died again but as sweetly as if he had but fallen asleep A happy Sinner indeed who can find such a Savioress as will give way to all his Crimes and secure him from punishment Men troubled in their Consciences and unwilling to leave their sins do not consider the Absurdity tho visible in all such Stories but see their own conveniency and what could please and fit then better then such a protecting Goddess Add to this Enchantment of daily Praiers to the Virgin the Devotion of Fasting and Hearing one Mass to her Honor every Saturday the Temtation will be ended and your Soul safe This weekly piece of Devotion on Saturday Officium Sabbatinum is grounded as they say l Durand Rational l. 4. c. 1. upon three Reasons 1. Because the Saturday and the Sunday or the Ladies day and the Lords day as do the Lord and the Lady go together 2. Because as God the Father rested upon that day and kept it holy under the Law so must the Goddess his Daughter and Wife do the like under the Gospel 3. Because she is an entrance to Eternal Life as Saturday is to the Sunday But if you will be so refractory as not to acquiesce in these Reasons be you satisfied with a Miracle They say m Gonon Chron. an 770. that in the Year 770. it is pity it did not happen sooner that the Holy Apostles and the Fathers might have observ'd it a great Cortin that hanged before our Ladies Image all the Week long was miraculously drawn up as they suppose into Heaven from Friday at Vespers to Sunday Night so that the People could see her Face for the space of 24 hours and adore her accordingly This Miracle constantly veiling and unveiling the Virgin Mary on Saturday as well as the other that the Night of her Assumtion made all sorts of Lights burn without wasting is quite abolish'd But the Benefit and the Charm to induce you to hear her Mass Missa de S. Maria in Sabbato
put them in again both so fast and so dexterously where they had bin that he was well of them ever after At another time she came to his Bed and finding him lying on that side where he had bin let Blood in the Arm she turned him upon the other and shew'd him how to lie and sleep without fear of farther danger If these evil Spirits dare thus appear under the name of Christs blessed Mother whereof Scripture gives no warning it is no wonder if they do it under the name of Christ himself after so many Prophecies It is not the true Christ certainly that being Immortal in Heaven comes down either at every Mass there to lie as if he were dead under the hand of any Priest or to shew tricks of Activity under the shape of a young Child and act among Nuns and Novices twenty silly Pranks in their Churches We are not bound to believe all but it were hard to believe nothing when so many and great Doctors and among them some great Saints too aver for truth one and the same thing One saies he hath seen this little Child creeping out s Matth. Paris in vita S. Godric at the mouth of a Crucifix 't is all that a Sparrow could do but the Devil can do much more and thence jumping into the Lap of an Image and thence flying up again the way that he came Another saies That St Ida t Menol. Cisters 29 Octob. had him and kissed him and embraced him ut sponsa sponsum that is as you may think as a young Wife kisses and embraces her young Husband The worst is that once when being to sing and by her order to stretch out her arm she was put to a great distress lest he should fall Cogitate c. Look to it my Lord saies the young Nun to the Baby for I must obey my Order but the Baby was a strong Child and so twisted himself about her neck that he had no need of her holding him till she had don with her Anthemn and so she took him in her Lap. St Agnes u Bov. 14. Annal. an 1317. n. 2. had him too witness the little Cross which in a loving way she stole at the same time out of his bosom And so had St Catharine of the Order of St. Clara x Flamin in vita S. Cathar being brought to her by his own Mother to kiss upon a Christmas Eve St Boniface y Henriquez Fascicul SS had him likewise brought to his Bed in Swadling-clothes by the same Dame As for St. Lucia of the Order of St Dominic z Chronic. Ord. Praedic she had him three daies and three nights during which time it is remarkable that the Virgin Maries Image had no Baby on its left Arm. At last Dominus Jesus the Lord Jesus God have mercy on the Blasphemer took her to Wife when he look'd as if he had bin but seven years old in the presence of all his Saints What shall I say of St. Hostradus and others who mistook these enchanting Devils for real Appearances of the Infant Christ and upon this Illusion a Henriquez 3. Jan. some did offer him as we do to Children something to eat some did take him b Chronic. Deip. an 1285. upon their knees others did c Ibid. an 1235. play with him and with St. John who was his Companion at it These few Instances may serve the turn to let pious Souls see with grief that as according to the Prophesies Jerusalem was troden and danced upon by ugly Owles and wild Satyrs Isa 13.21 So the Roman Church is made a Stage for vile Spirits to act upon If some say these were Visions I grant they were and Divelish ones too For where are the good Saints or Angels that will represent much lest act Christ and the Blessed Virgin under such shameful Personages If you are for sounder Miracles tho good Catholics must take these for very real and true ones or most of their Saints are but Cheats go to the Founders of their Orders you shall find about St. Francis d S. Bonavent In vita S. Francisci Sheep and Asses running to hear his Sermon Swine falling dead under his Curse for having hurt a poor Lamb all sorts of Cattel recovering with the Water he washt his feet in Women presently eas'd of the hardest Travel by applying to them some of the Hay which his Mule was used to eat This don go to St. Dominic you shall find him either at Mass e Joh. Gargo in vita S. Dominic ac Lipom. hanging in the Air like a Bird or at the Bed-side of a sick Woman transubstantiating Worms into Pearls or by the Water-side raising the River into a Flood or at his Devotions forcing the Devil to hold a light and to burn his Fingers in that Service or it may be changing the Sex of a young Girl into a Boy Lastly If you will know what Feats Women also can do sometimes read me but the Life f Tho Cantapr in vita S. Christinae ap Sur. Jun. an 1160. item Jacob. de Vitriaco in vita S. Mariae Oeigniar of Saint Christina to say nothing of St. Brigitta St. Juliana St. Clara Saint Vrsula with hundreds more known and famous in the Roman Church This great Saint arose from the dead twice before she died for good and all and so died thrice All her Life long she had a very extraordinary gift of Miracles for having taken upon her to save Souls from Purgatory by suffering here what they did there she loved to throw her self into all the hot Ovens or burning Fires she could find yet met with none that could burn her she would attone for Gluttons by resolving to starve her self and while she felt the great pains of a sharp hunger this Virgin got Milk in her Paps and so found ease by sucking her self she did satisfie for proud Souls by applying her self to the worst way of common Begging and herein she had this comfort that when honest Men did give her Bread it tasted in her mouth like Bread otherwise it tasted like Toads flesh To expiate all sorts of Sins contracted by much company this Saint resolved to forsake Man-kind and to come near none but Beasts and at last that she might be the safer from all Contagion of Flesh and Blood she parch'd her self on the tops of Trees There her thin Body being made thinner both by continual Fasting and great fervency of Spirit she did at her Praier contract her self into a round form that was somwhat like a Hedg-hog She could climb up the highest Trees like a Squirrel and swim in Rivers like a Fish till her Friends barbarous it seems and not believing all these Miracles put her in Chains as a mad Woman and there she tore sadly her poor Body with strugling hard to free her self and this strugling in her Prison gave occasion to more Miracles for the Milk she
Soul thirst after her and do not leave her till she hath blessed thee Let thy mouth be filled with her praise and sing of her greatness all the day long That of the same Moses at the red Sea Exod. 15. Let us sing to our glorious Lady the Virgin Mary Our Lady is Almighty Her name is next to God She hath thrown into the Sea the Chariots of Pharaoh his Host c. O Lady thou hast delivered my Soul from the Lion O my dearest Lady cover thou me as a Hen doth c. I am all thine and all I have is thine I will put thee as a signet upon my heart c. That of Isaiah 12. I will sing to thee O Lady c. for thou hast comforted me my Lady is my Savior I will trust in thee and will not fear Thou art my strength in the Lord and art become my Salvation with joy will I draw Waters out of thy brook and I will call upon thy name alwaies c. That of King Hezekias in the same Prophet 38.9 when he was recovered from his mortal Disease I said in the midst of my daies I will go to Mary c. Father Mother and Friends did forsake me but Mary hath holden me up I will put my trust in her in the morning in the evening and at noon-day God had as it were a Lion broken my bones but thou our Lady hast delivered my Soul from perishing my Darling from the hand of the Dog c. That of the three Children commonly so called All the works of the Lord bless our Lady praise and magnifie her for ever O ye Angels bless our Lady c. Blessed be thou O Crown of Kings Let every knee in Heaven in Earth and in Hell bow unto thy Name c. That of Zachary Luke 1.38 Blessed be thou Lady Mother c. Save us from all our Enemies c. and perform the Mercy promised to our Fathers and us that we being delivered out of the hands of our Enemies may serve thee without fear c. And thou Mary shalt be called the Prophetess of the Highest by whom he hath given the knowledg of Salvation c. By the Bowels of thy Mercy O Morning Star do thou visit us from on high To complete Idolatry with absurdity that very Hymn wherewith she adored once her God is with some parcels of the Song of Annah 1 Sam. 2. now turned into an Office to adore her My Soul doth magnifie the Lord and my spirit hath rejoiced in my Lady c. There is no Saint like our Lady c. Let Sion and Jerusalem rejoice and praise Mary for she is the greatest among the Ladies of Israel She makes poor and she makes rich She brings low and she lifts up on high This Lady of ours is higher then the Heavens broader then the Earth and purer then the very Stars 6. Sixthly She is adored with the most solemn and elevated Office that the ancient Church could worship God with namely Te Deum We praise thee O Mary we a Melch. Inchofern Ep. B.M. ad finem acknowledg thee to be the Lady All the Earth doth worship thee as the Spouse of the everlasting Father To thee all Angels c. continually do cry Holy holy holy Mary the Mother of God The holy Church thro out all the world doth acknowledg thee Mother of an Infinite Majesty Thou art the Queen of Glory O Mary the Ark of Grace and the Ladder of Heaven Thou art the hope of all the world the Salvation of them that call on thee the Teacheress of the Apostles the strength of the Martyrs c. O Lady save thy People c. Vouchsafe O Lady to keep us this day and for ever O Lady have mercy upon us have mercy upon us O Lady let thy mercy lighten upon us as our trust in thee c. Lastly there is added to her Honor that Praier which belongs to the Holy Ghost Veni Creator and which some say the Council of Constance at their meeting were pleased to present the Virgin with Come Mother of Grace Spring of Mercy Light of the Church Queen Star c. come to defend the Church to destroy Heresie and to make peace c. And in a word to do any thing that an honest and pious Council may better expect of the holy Ghost 7. Seventhly There is a whole Bible made and Printed to her Honor Biblia Mariae Albertus Magnus both a great Scholar and a great Bishop and a kind of Roman Saint is the Prophet who as it is thought composed it This Holy Book gives the Virgin all or b Biblia Mariae Tit. Pag. Omnia fere most part of what was in the true Bible either said or intended for God and Christ As for Example in Genesis She is the truth both of the Altar which Noah built and of the Sacrifice which he offered and the Sweet savor which there was smelled is nothing else then her Praier She is the Ladder which Jacob saw Gen. 28. wherewith Christ is to come down to us and we are to come up to him In Exodus she is said to be both the true Mercy-seat and the great Altar of Burnt-offerings In Leviticus and Numbers she is the Ark of the Covenant the Rock whence flow the Waters of Grace and the Star which Balaam saw c. In Joshuah she is the Border of our Heavenly Inheritance the Window through which we must escape and be saved from Jericho that is from perishing in and with the World the Ark which marches before us to Canaan that is Heaven there to prepare us a resting place the City of Refuge where those must seek shelter whosoever flee from the Wrath of God c. In the Book of Judges she is the true and great Captain in whose hand our Celestial Father puts the whole Land Heaven all Power and Himself Therefore take heed saies this Godly Bible from going to war without her In Ruth she is the true Ruth with more probability then the Captain who goes to the Field that is the Church there to glean ears of corn left in the Field by the Reapers that is some few which she rescues from Devils Thus she gleans whomsoever she pleases for Boaz hath charged the reaping Angels not to to touch her Ruth 2.9.15 16. When she hath gleaned them she takes them up into the Bosom of her Mercy and carries them into the City v. 8. that is into the Celestial Jerusalem In the 1. Kings 1.2 3. She is the fair and young Virgin who is to lie in the Kings or Gods Bosom and inflames him to love and compassion towards his People Thus this Bible running all along to the Revelation after this rate at last ends with this Praier instead of the Grace of our Lord c. O Queen of Mercy Grace and Glory Emperess of all the Creatures blot out all my Transgressions and lead me to the life everlasting 8. The Virgin
8.34 2. This Goddess expects also after your Praiers your daily Praises and herein this is the Method which great men of the Papal Communion b Joh. Mauburnes in Roseto Exerc. Spirit Tit. 4. c. 6. mind you to observe Meditate say they upon the Munday those Things that preceded Her Birth how she was conceived without original Sin how she was adored by Angels and how c S. Bernardin Serm. De Nativ B. M. a. 1. c. 2. she had sublimer thoughts and a better use of her Reason being yet in her Mothers womb then men and women use to have when they are come to a full age Upon Tuesday you must mind her Education and Course of life how she was at three years of age brought to the Temple how there she was shut up like a Nun how there in the Sanctuary where by Gods Law the very High Priest is not suffered to come in oftener then once in a year She was fed by the Cherubims till she was fit for a Husband then how much the Priests were perplexed about either keeping her there any longer against the Law or marrying her against her Vow and how being ravishingly fair such a bright Light d Dionys Carthus l. 1. de Land Mariae c. 39. sparkled about her Face that without some help from above no mans Eies durst look upon her On the Wednesday your task is her Fulness of Grace and how she is an unfathomable Abysse whence all Angels and Saints and sinners must draw whatever they want On Thursday you must admire her singular Priviledges her Immaculate Conception her Impossibility of sinning her Dominion over all the world Men and Angels Saints and Devils c. On Friday make it your business to meditate on her Passion and on her concurring with our Savior while he was upon the Cross towards the Redemtion of Mankind On Saturday admire all her Joies upon Earth when the Archangel fell on his knees and sung to her Ave Maria c. but remember that this joiful Devotion must not excuse you from one Syllable of her weekly Sabbatin Office On Sunday you have a fit time to admire her Assumtion and all her glorious Joies in Heaven What these are she may best tell you them her self First saies e Henriquez Menol. Cestero 3. Jun. she to S. Arnalphus a huge great mignion of this Ghost my first joy is that at my Assumtion there I found a greater Glory then can be uttered or thought of and that my Glorious fulness goes beyond that of both Saints and Angels My second Joy is when I do see the whole Celestial Hierarchy irradiated about by me just as the day is by the Sun My third Joy is to see both the Hosts of Heaven to obey me and the whole Trinity to agree kindly with me My fift Joy is for my Author hath not the fourth to see my devout worshippers thriving both in this and the other life according to my hearts desire My sixt Joy is to find my self highly exalted above all Angels and by a singular Priviledg set close to the Trinity My seventh Joy is to be sure that this great Glory of mine shall never fail She confirmed the self same thing f Chronic. Deip. an 1228. to S. Thomas of Canturbury So upon the credit of two distinct Apparitions all this is as true as the rest and you have work enough for a whole week 3. But here is more when you have sufficiently discharged all the Duties which belong to the Year to the Week and to the Day you must think of the Seven Hours In former times of twelve hours in the day the Church had appointed Seven called the seven Canonical hours for the public Service of God and now since Mary is come abroad and the Monks g Dominic à Soto l. 10. de Justit à Jure q. 5. a. 4. are in request The Roman Church thinks it no robbery to make her Lady as to this tho with lesser obligation equal to God Pope Vrban the second is the first that as their h Baron Tom. 11 an 1095. best Historians say instituted a proper Office to her honor upon these hours and if you believe their best Divines in these matters it were great pity we should do less For since the Psalmist saies i Al. Gazaeus de Offic. B. M. pag. 69. 70. Gazaeus did bless himself for praising the Lord seven times a day because of his Righteous Judgments Psal 119. why should not Roman Catholics do as much for their Lady their good Mother and Protectrix because of her loving Mercies knowing this that the Eternal God as well as the King Ahasuerus Esther 6. will have her whom he honors thus honored that is at his seven Canonical hours And plain Catholic Reason say their great k Quell Durand Ration l. 5 c. 1. sub fin Masters of Mysteries will have it so 1. At Night that is very early in the Morning because then appears in Heaven a certain Star which they do call Transmontana which guides Sea-men in the Right way and so doth the Virgin Roman Sailers the true Sea l Missal Paris An. Domin Star Stella Maris who if they praise her devoutly will steer them safe out of this World into the Haven where they would be 2. At prime when there appears another called Diana that goes before the Sun and so doth also the Virgin Mary 3. At Tierce ad Tertiam that is in our account about nine of the Clock because we then begin to be hungry and t is she as they say that provides for us the Bread of life 4. At the sixth that is at Noon because then the Sun is very hot and therefore we must then praise her and pray to her but why not him that she be pleased to inflame us with Charity 5. At Nine that is at three in the Afternoon because the Sun declines then towards setting and t is she that takes care of us when we decay 6. At Vespers after Sun-set because cur life being at an end they say she then mainly succors her Worshippers at the dangerous time of death 7. Lastly at Completory when t is quite dark because when our life is quite gon then she intercedes for her dead Servants and procures them good admittance into her heavenly Mansions So by this which they call officium parvum hourly Office the Marian and the Christian Service like so many Veins and Arteries run both together through all the Parts of the Roman life Night and day and at every hour the Praiers and Praises of the Virgin Mary never must depart from their hearts nor if it be possible from their Mouths too And in the Monasteries the great Scholes of Piety there is no Service for God Almighty nor any time left for his worship but the Lady hath a share in it And here learn from a Saint and a Cardinal besides how far this Marianism for it is no
the Rosary both to save all sorts of sinners and to please the Holy Virgin I say St. Dominic knew it before for when he praied against the Albigenses r Bovius Tom. 13. an 1213. the Queen of Mercy appeared to him and bad him to set up the Rosary and to teach all men that form of Praier as most acceptable Service both to her self and to her Son And besides this Instrument saies she shall be a singular weapon to destroy Heresies and Vices to advance all sorts of Vertue and to obtain both the Divine Mercy and my help All this was farther represented by two notable Visions which a Bishop saw in a Dream In one he saw S. Dominic s Gonon Chronic. an 1315. making a Bridg with 150 Towers upon it to bring sinners into a Garden where the Queen of mercy was giving Crowns to others but to himself a sharp Censure for his being not sound in the Faith concerning that Article of Catholic Religion But in the other this prelat being grown very little better by what he had seen in the former he found himself and many more in a most stinking t Ibid. Lake and Puddle where certainly they had bin choakt but that both the Goddess and the Apostle of the Rosary let down from above a long Chain made of 150 small Rings and some few others bigger among them by means whereof all were drawn out Thus far you see what the Holy Rosary can do now you must learn how to use it 1. It is needful to begin it deliberately u Mart. Navar. de Horis Canon c. 13. n. 15. that is saies the best and surest Author you can find in that Church not to do it like men in a dream who may walk and kneel and say their praiers altho they sleep but to begin it with a set purpose of doing what the Church enjoines For tho there are several Examples of men that were saved out of Hell for either wearing x Alan Rediv. part 5. c. 43. a Rosary or for giving it to y Id. part 1. c. 21. a friend without using it otherwise these are extraordinary Blessings rather granted to some to recommend the Excellency of Rosaries then to encourage holy men to that abuse 2. Tho of course as it appears by the ordinary Gloss z Clement in Concil Vien de Celebrat Misserum Tit. 13. upon the Council of Vienna Rosaries might be used as well as other forms of Praiers are without actual attention which manner of Praying without the mind is called by them the fruit †Ibid. of the Lips and thus the Lips may do the work in reading the hourly Praiers whilst the heart runs another way yet besides the first Deliberation and set purpose in the Beginning my more sober and severe director requires a kind of General attention in the Progress of this Service that is to say you are not bound to attend what words you say nor to care much what sense they bear since neither of these two can be well done without some help of the Latin tongue which you have not But whilest you dispatch your Aves and tumble over and over your Beades you must have what they call the Third or the * Paul Layman Theol. Moral l. 4. Tract 1. c. 5. n. 9. Spiritual Attention that is a Navà rrus De Hor. Can. c. 13. n. 4. to remember for example that you are at Mass there to fancy the Real Presence and to pray heartily that what the Mass Priest doth or saies for you tho you do not know what it is may be granted My good God or my sweet Lady saies the Catholic worshipper as b Navar. Ibidem this severe Divine advises him I do not understand what I hear and I as little understand what I say yet I believe that I both hear and say thy Praises and that I pray for my self and all other Christians after the intention of the Holy Church Grant me O Dear Lord or Lady what I desire not knowing what This being done and the men being thus well disposed let Mass hourly Praiers and Rosaries be what they will Greek or Latin Pater noster or la sol fa all is one to Roman Worshippers And as to the 15 Mysteries and 165 Contemplations all this must not trouble his head as it might most really do and it may be c turn his Brain too if he were oblig'd to care for it for it seems these Contemplations and Mysteries are involved in the Rosary as a great Tresure under Walls to make it vastly rich and powerful altho the owner perceive it not Thus their consecrating Words Hoc est enim corpus meum can work Miracles from the mouth of an Ignorant and so do mostly Spells and Characters in the mouth of a Conjurer Origen observes somewhere that the words of Abraham Isaac and Sabaoth that Magicians did enchant with did work far better in that Tongue which was unknown to them then in their own You may hear of strange Fears also don by words taken out of the Latin Psalms which the Witches do not understand And so must at this rate Ave Maria Pater noster good and holy words otherwise if they do such Miracles as they say contract likewise a strange Virtue from some Extrinsecal Principle which is neither understood nor thought of Mean while what Church is this and where can the Papists find such another that dispatches the Divine Service as Conjurers do their mischief in a strange Tongue 3. To say the Rosary after the best way without distracting your self about Contemplations and Mysteries take me the Virgin d Navar. de Rosar Miscell 26. n. 2. by her self that so the whole strength of your Soul may the better mind her alone And fancy her the best you can in some of those Conditions which her Images can help you to either as hearing with reverence the Message of the Angel Gabriel Ave Maria c. or looking stedfastly on her Baby whom she hath commonly on her left Arm or else sitting like a great Queen close to God upon a high Throne and there hearkening to what we say To use your fancy to this way you must salute her thrice a day at Morning Noon and Sun-setting when you hear the Bell Salve Regina and at each time e Ibid. adore one of those three Members or parts of her which were the seats of the greatest Wonders 1. Her Belly in these or such Words O most glorious Queen of Mercy I do salute the venerable Temple of thy Womb Ave Maria. 2. Her Heart O most glorious Queen of Mercy I salute thy Virgin Heart which never had any tincture of sin Ave Maria. 3. Her Soul O most glorious Mother of Mercy I salute your most noble Soul deckt as it is with all the pretious Ornaments of Gifts of Vertues and of Graces Ave Maria 4. Thus having got your self into some f Ibid.
it doth sometimes that the laborious and painful part is so extrinsecal to the good work as to be easily severed from it as when S. Paul Preaches in the Chain or when S. John looses his Head in a Prison for his Preaching altho the Chain and the Preaching be two different things in their nature yet they cohere and are close together in the Eies of God Almighty there the holy Work of Preaching shall sanctifie the cruel Chain the hard Chain shall improve the price of the Holy or Meritorious Preaching And if David can well consider not only what Service Abner did him in bringing Israel to him but also that he lost an Army or part of his Estate in doing it there is no fear but God is a good God and will extend his Mercies as far both on what his Servants do in his Name and what they suffer in those Services For I say unto you that every one that hath forsaken Houses or Children or Lands c. shall receive an hundred fold more c. Matth. 19. And when every little parcel of the Suffering is recompensed as well as the Meritorious part with so liberal a Reward What can Popes scrape off from it that remains unrewarded to spend in satisfactions for more and to lay up in their Tresury It seems these crafty Shavers would have the Meritoriousness for one thing and the pain of performing it for another or in more homely terms they would give the Money for the Purchase and the trouble of telling and paying it for the discharge of some other Debts whereas the sum well told and paid can scarce suffice to buy the first much less to leave any over-plus to satisfie the second Account 3. Lastly Whenever Crosses and Hardships fall upon one not in order to any good Work which they do precede or follow but because they are sent from God for Chastisements or Curbs or Trials as the Tribulations of Job the buffeting Angel of Paul and the Sickliness of Timotheus were or because they are voluntarily fetch'd in and undertaken by some Saints as the hard Diet of John the Baptist the often Fastings of Anna the low and narrow Lodge of Hilarion the seeming barbarous Mortifications of some ancient Holy Persons What is all this to the Popes Tresure Did ever God at any time lay these Afflictions on the Righteous in order to make the Pope richer or his own Children humble and better And when these laied them on themselves can the Roman Church well think but that they intended them rather for mortifying their own Bodies and securing their own Salvation then for discharging other Mens sins What and if God and they laied more then was necessary for these true ends Are Roman Divines ignorant that God who made Job twice as rich as he was before he made him poor will most abundantly remunerate all such hard surplusage if there is any And when all accounts are made even whatsoever Burthens are charged either by their Savior or themselves St. Paul tells them That the sufferings of this present life and 't is with these if some could be found unrewarded that this Tresury should be stuffed up are so far from superabounding or equalling that they are not to be compared with that Glory immense reward of all Sufferings and not only of all good Works which shall be reveled in us Ro. 8.18 Or if by chance Clement the 6th and the first Founder of this Tresure better understood this Balance and saw in some corner or other about S. Mary S. Stephen and other Martyrs some unrewarded Afflictions which S. Paul took no notice of in Conscience are we come to this that Roman Popes may fetch them out and apply them to whom they please That poor John the Baptist shall see from Heaven his austere Life and hairy Clothes shelter Herods and Herodias lying securely together That most vile and unclean Persons shall with the unspotted Holiness and Chastity of the Blessed Virgin Mary buy off out of Purgatory and sometimes out of Hell it self the very Whores who * Luitpr l. 2. c. 13. Vid. Ieron ad an 908. made them Popes And that the Martyrs shall be in the disposal and for the use of so many dissolute Monsters And to this comes the Church Tresury that makes so much noise in the World and like a Drum is as emty as it is loud Let us see what they draw out of it CHAP. X. Concerning Roman Indulgences the most general Inducement to Popery THE Church Tresury the Jubilee the Indulgences are words capable of a good sense if the Roman Church would allow of it For really the Church of God possesses a very great Tresure namely Jesus Christ in Heaven and in his Holy Ordinances All sinners whosoever they be if contriti confessi after Gods way that is really and truly penitent and turning from their sins to good Works such as become true Christian Faith and Repentance may without the Keies of the Pope open this Heavenly Tresure and thence take out as much of Christs Blood or to make use of the Roman terms as much of the satisfactions of Christ as will make up a full and a most plenary Indulgence that is Mercy and Pardon without Mony and plenteous Redemtion both from the Spot and the punishment of all their Sins John the Baptist Jesus Christ and the Apostles are the first Men who at the very Birth of the Christian Church did Preach abroad these Indulgences and among them Peter is the first not Boniface who proclamed at Jerusalem the great Christian Jubilee You have his Bull in his Sermon Acts 2.38 39. The Church of Rome for her own ends hath much abused this good Tresure as well as these great Indulgences and if you look into what she hath to brag of you shall find her Tresury to be but a broken Cistern and her Indulging Bulls instead of Living Waters to be but Puddles With all the Blood shed on the Cross one drop whereof in their judgement could have saved all they say that Christ hath not fully satisfied for any actual sins after our Baptism and that besides the Eternal Torments in Hell for which he hath immediatly satisfied there remain other not less grievous tho not so long for which we our selves must needs satisfie either in this Life or near about Hell in a place under Ground which they call Purgatory Their Mass Priests and Bishops with all their ordinary Power cannot absolve their Penitents tho never so contrite farther then this and to have more they must either procure it to themselves by their own works or send to Rome for Indulgences All this is pack'd and contrived with great Wisdom for the best advantage of Rome His Holiness gains much by it for all that Blood which might have paid for all the pains as well as for the vicious Acts of sin is spared for his Tresury and all Catholic Souls being affrighted with Purgatory out of which
Latin word Indulgentia without its proper sense and use was ground enough for crafty men to build what they would upon it and how far they have abused it and more abused their Church with it one may guess by what here follows It was and should be still the Practise of the Holy Church to expell from their Society Scandalous and known sinners and since the Church could not alwaies keep Hypocrites from coming in she could not take a better course for asserting both her detestation against all sin and her credit with God and men then to keep them off when duly known and to shun them in their holy Meetings especially till many and great Evidences both of their sorrow for what they had done and of their Amendment for the time to come had procured them Readmittance They were y Concil Ancyran Can. 16. Concil Nicen. Can. 11. enjoined to pray to fast to curb and to mortifie their Flesh to afflict their Souls for their sins and to apply themselves to all such works as might both improve and declare their inward sincere Repentance These long and holy Exercises did pass among all Christians for Satisfactions to the Church and in some manner z Cyprian l. 1. Ep. 3. to God too Before the Church most properly because that was all which the Church Discipline and Ecclesiastical Canons did require and before God in a lower yet a very true and proper sense because tho all such works of Repentance be far from being a price equivalent to what Divine Justice demands which can never be had but either from the eternal death of the sinner or from the infinite satisfactions of Christ for him yet it is the main Condition which God requires of Offenders before the grant of his Pardon and which he is in his Mercy both satisfied and pleased with when they sincerely perform it This was not all 't was not enough to have don it they must do it a long * Concil Ancyr supra while some a whole year some two some ten some according to the Enormity of the sin all their life long and the surest Proof the Church could take of their real sincerity was in the length of their Performances By this it seems the holy Fathers had a great care that in the management of their keies whether to shut out or to let in their Church might keep time with Heaven so that they might neither retein nor remit here upon Earth but what and when they might well judg God would retein or remit above It was not then as now at Rome where Dispensations and Licences are presently got at a small Rate a Ravisher of a Virgin was in the year 1520 I hear it is now much raised as well as the Rate of Monies about six a Taxa Cancellar Apostol Fol. 36. pag. 2. Edit Paris 1520. Groats the Ravisher of his own Sister was but at five and the heaviest severity that these Villains must undergo is that 't is impossible for them how penitent and contrite soever to be released without some Mony Pauperibus c. b Ibid. fol. 23. p. 1. that is they cannot have the Comfort of these Mercies whosoever brings in no Mony In such Occasions of Scandal the Roman Church whilst a Virgin was as severe as now she is become remiss and what the Whore gives for twelve pence the honest Virgin had scarce granted for a penance of twenty years So careful were they in those daies to clear the Church from foul Scandals and so afraid were they withal in the exercise of their Power to break correspondencie with Gods Justice to unloose them whom he kept bound and to bind themselves before God * S. Ambros De Paenit l. 2. c. 2. by a rash unbinding of others You may read in S. Cyprian c Cyprian l. 3. Ep. 14. Ep. 15. Ep. 16. item Serm. de lapsis and Ambrose how both sinful and dangerous this loose and remiss indulgence is in their opinion Nevertheless there now and then happened such causes as not only permitted but moved them also to be more free As when the excommunicated Sinner gave signal proofs of an extraordinary sorrow when upon dangerous occasions he stoutly owned and defended the Christian Faith when in times of Persecutions all Christians were to be encouraged and strengthened to Martyrdom and when valiant Confessors who ever before their Death were reputed for true Martyrs did intercede for some of their friends on these and other like rational and pious Inducements the holy Fathers thought they might d Conc. Ancyran Can. 5. 12. Conc. Nic. Can. 12. either ease such Penitents of the length or sometimes quite discharge them of the whole Burthen that excommunicated but withal contrite persons did lie under and so before the time prescribed readmit them into the Church And this Relaxation of Ecclesiastical Severity some Latin Fathers e Cyprian de Lapsis Sub sin Tertull. de Exhortat Castit call once or twice in their writings by the Name of Indulgence Tbis was enough for cunning Cheats to ground their Indulgences upon and for silly men to entertain them So that as one word Missa could serve their turn as I have shew'd in another Book for introducing that great Abomination which they call Mass so doth this other Latin word Indulgentia used once or twice by some ancient Authors in a good sense and now turned to a quite other for countenancing all the Impostures that now a daies are bought and sold under the name of Indulgences Here you may whensoever you please discover Romes either Knavery or Folly or both by these two distinct Characters The first is that when the Fathers thought good to use any Indulgence it was to shorten or to moderate their Ecclesiastical Censures before Reconciliation and pardon whereas the Roman Indulgence is for another sort of Punishments which Mass Priest are pleased both to inflict on the Penitents and to moderate or quite take off after their Absolution The second is that the holy Fathers never either thought or attemted to moderate or to take off any other Censures or Punishments then such as had bin imposed whereas the Pope by his Indulgences offers to moderate or take off all boâ— what is laid on by his Church and what is or shall be laid on by God himself As to the first Mark to distinguish the Primitive Relaxations from the present Roman Indulgences The Church of Christ never used upon any occasion whatsoever this unnatural and popish way of inflicting punishments or Ecclesiastical Censures after Pardon and therefore they could not have occasion of ever granting such Indulgences as should ease men after pardon from such Censures When notorious and public Offences had turned the sinner out of dores the Holy Fathers did lay on him several Degrees of Rigor before they would take him in again as antecedent Preparations to make him fit to be taken in 1. The Sinner
in applying it to strangers or God the Father being there present in applying it to his Children Is it that Christs Redemtion must come to Rome and there be ratified by some Bull before it be good against Burning Secondly this Paiment however reacht to is they say presented to God by the Pope It is so in all Indulgences but in those especially which his Holiness grants for the dead For there the Pope rescues no man from what he suffers but by offering as much to God of Christs Sufferings that so Justice they say n Bellarmin de Indulg l. 1. c. 14. sect Tertia Quaestio may be satisfied by the exchange And herein lies a most impious Absurdity 1. For what is this to offer up again what Christ by his eternal Spirit offered before Was not Christs once offering it sufficient Is the Popes Offering more acceptable and since Christ alone can by the Law of Mechisedecs Priest-hood offer up his Body and Blood what is the Popes second Offering in every Bull but a most sacrilegious Boldness Will they say that this Offering is merely intentional such as every Christian may do by praier then say I the Indulgence which the Pope sells with this kind of Offering is a mere Cheat if it be more it is the Sacrilege 2. Secondly what a rude extravagancy is it to offer to God for Paiment his own Mony and to present him with that which he had already from an incompatably better hand Is this fair and honest dealing to pay one out of his own Purse and what Piece of Courtship is it in a Subject to present his Prince with nothing else then his own proper Roial Jewels This is the truth of Christs Satisfaction and Pope and Papists should either learn or teach it better Christ having once offered to God a Ransom most sufficient to redeem all men both from all sins and all the Penalties which attend them God the Father hath accepted of it for such at the hands of his Dear Son Now the way of applying this great and infinite Sacrifice and of rendring it as well all Efficacious to us as it is al-sufficient in it self is not to return it up to God either by ordinary Priests at Mass or by Popes pretending to repay it him in Indulgences for this were rather the way of applying it to God who gives then to us who must receive it but to beg it of God through Christ by continual Praiers to thirst and long after it by the sense of our wants and unworthiness to qualify our selves towards the receiving of it by repenting and then to embrace what God according to his mercies and promises will give to embrace it I say with faith and secure it to our selves by a constant course of holy life Or to say the same in Roman terms The Church hath an infinite Tresure both of Satisfactions and Merits out of which you may have as many Jubilees and Plenary Indulgences for all your Sins and all the Penalties whether eternal or temporal that attend sin as you shall want This Tresure of Satisfactions hath already bin both so sufficiently and so efficaciously offered to God by Christ and accepted of by God for you that without any farther Offering by Mass Oblations or Popes Bulls it stands alwaies before God in his mind and acceptation God is pleased to offer it you full as it is in his Gospel His Holy Sacraments and his gracious Promises are both his Bulls and Indulgences and be sure that you shall gain them if you are but willing and earnest to have them Only know this that Christ who is the Steward and the Dispenser of the Tresure throws it not a way undiscreetly on every sinner that bids mony None of his Indulgences are to be had sine Causa rationabili as the Bull-mongers use to speak without some reasonable cause which is leaving the Pope to come with repentance and Faith to Christ instead of bowing to a Rosary Altar or an Image to humble your self and walk uprightly both before God and before men Now have you got the whole Tresure upon these reasonable terms you have the keies along with it as far as your private concern reaches Impepenitency or continuing in any sin are the two ordinary keies that lock it up holy Faith and true Charity are the keies that get it open There are keies of another kind that belong to public Persons S. Peter S. Paul and all the Lawful Officers in the house of God These public keies are to lock out of it all such wretches as stand in the Church to shame it and to open it to them again when after due proofs of Amendment they shall watch and knock at her Gates And this is more then perhaps you think for altho directly they belong only to the Church they do also consequently both lock or open Gods good Tresure and in some manner Heaven it self For tho Christ properly be the keeper of as well as the way and the Gate of this Celestial Palace take it for certain that his Keies do shut or open his Kingdom whensoever Paul or Apollos or any other Lawful Bishop Lawfully shuts or opens the Church and whensoever also your private ones shut or open your own Tresure If Rome trespass against the rule as her keies may turn wrong and not in the wards of the Catholic Church your private ones shall serve your turn and the keies of Christ will second them These keies every true Christian as Tertullian p saies very well doth keep and carry about him and may with them attain unto the tender Mercies of God and the satisfaction of Christ for all his sins without the Bull of any Pope The very Papists do confess it tho they do it in other words when they say r Becan de Sacram. c. 31. sect 1. Parag. Tertia Conclusio Lay-man de Sacram. Poenit. c. 1. n. 8. That there is no mortal sin but may be remitted by true Co trition without the Sacrament of Penance Only for fear of beggering themselves they keep in their own Power the remitting of Temporal Pains This one Reservation makes all the trouble about Pardons and so secures all the profit It makes all the trouble for Pardons for let the foulest sinner go and confess the meanest Mass Priest can absolve him from all his sins and from all the eternal punishments in Hell and if some Repentance be required tho some s Sylvester Verb. Confess 1. c. 21. Soto in 4. Sent. d. 14. q. 4. a. 3. think it scarce necessary it will go hard with the Penitent if a very small sorrow be not counted Attrition and by the power of their Keies be not elevated that is made to pass into such a degree of Contrition or Roman Repentance as shall secure the worst Livers from Eternal Destruction And God knows how many Wretches both are drawn away to that Church and there emboldened to sin by this sweer Enchantment But when
another kind of Punishent not that which the Church had laid but that which God himself will lay on them not in this life and in the Church but after death and in Purgatory not to make them a whit the better but only to please his Justice So because they know well enough that these new Indulgences of theirs are quite another thing then b Navar. de Jubil Notab 11. n. 7. Suarez de Indulg Disput. 49. Sect. 2. n. 7 8 9. what the ancient Relaxations were they will borrow somthing of those to cover with it the newness of these and having changed the very Substance they do what they can to inveigle themselves and others with some emty Shadows and Forms Only they must betray themselves when to make Indulgences more precious they multiply twenties into thousands a number as inconsistent with the Censures as with the Lives of Penitents in the Church of God but compatible with their new waies of Penance in Purgatory For whereas one or two or some few Years of Ecclesiastical Relaxation did tend only to take off some Years of their Ecclesiastical Censure our Roman Relaxations and Indulgences intend to take off quite or to abridge Gods Judgment which may last upon burning Souls longer then the longest Bulls And this is the sense and meaning of their extravagant Calculation Sir you have from his Holiness a Bull of forty thousand Years that is a holy Privilege by which you shall be c Layman de Indulg c. 3. n. 1. Suarez de Ind. Disput. 50. Sect. 5. n. 12. exemted from as long and as hot Burnings in the other World as you might have freed your self from not only by scourging your back every day of your natural life but every day of forty thousand Years if you were able to live so long Every one of your Mortal Sins deserves by some ancient Canons a d Bellar. de Indulg l. 1. c. 9. Mortification of three of seven and some of ten Years and more think how many such lie upon you and then peradventure you shal find that tho an Indulgence of forty thousand Years goes very far it may be yet too short for you But if you be not pleased with this mesuring of Indulgences because how long and wide soever it is upon many e Suarez supra accounts uncertain whereas the sum which you pay for them is not so take at your choice either partial or plenary Indulgences and then you shall know what you take If you take a partial one chuse what piece of Pardon you please whether to be freed from the Penances that your Confessor puts you to or from the punishment of venial or for half a third or fourth part of Mortal Sins I say this because beyond Sea I have known some great Persons who would not take Pardon for all being informed by their Directors that God would be better glorified if they should expiate some part of them by Burning themselves along with them in the Purgatory Fire However the Pope now hath the Blood and the Satisfactions of Christ so perfectly at his command that he may will let you have of it for as much and as little as you please But if you have a mind to make clear work and to be quit with Gods Justice upon all scores take a total or a plenary Indulgence A plenary Indulgence God in his great mercy forgive and undeceive them who Blaspheme so is thought equivalent to Holy Baptism and able to convey as much of Christs Blood upon you as will wash you clean from all your Sins or at the least clear you from all Debts from the very date of your Baptism to the taking of the Indulgence Yet this total or full Indulgence admits of several degrees For in Pope f Extravag Antiquorum Boniface's account there are some that are more then full Pleniores some others yet fuller then these Plenissimae Some of the Roman Champions are puzled at this gradation and do not know how to take it unless it be for an exaggerating Expression to swell somewhat the business and to lighten the Buyers purse Nevertheless there is in the case ground enough for these and more Gradations 1. You may think to have gained a total Indulgence because it releases you of all the Punishment which can be laid on you by the Church when you want another to release you from all other punishments which may either in Purgatory or in some other place be laid on you by God himself 2. Suppose your plenary Indulgence remits both these Ab injunct is debitis it commonly remits them no farther then the time when it is applied to you when being in great danger of dying you are absolv'd by it But in case you live longer tho it were but a Fortnight your total Indulgence is spent you want another that may remit the sins which you may fall into before you die Therefore there is a fuller one Plenior that may serve you to your last breath 3. There must be another yet fuller then this for when you are in such an extremity of either sickness or danger that apparently you cannot live Articulus mortis praesumtus that is the point g Felin de Indulg n. 16. Antonin 1. part Tit. 10. c. 13. and last term when you must use it then if you escape this danger you see you are to seek of another against both the point presumed h Navar. de Jubil Notabil 3. n. 18. and the point real when you shall die unless you take their good advise i Id. Notabil 11. n. 7. who are for two distinct Indulgences one for the presumed end of your life which for greater security you may use in any danger and the other for the real term when you shall die in good earnest for thus they say you cannot fail to end your daies in a Baptismal Innocency 4. But yet you may perhaps want a Priest to say your Absolution For tho these kind of Officers be common enough even five or six in a Parish yet they may be all singing their Mass when you are at home groaning to death And in those barbarous Countries where Mass-Priests are not so frequent what will avail all your Indulgences if you chance to die at Durham when your Mass-Priest is at New-castle Therefore there are other fuller then those and most full and fullest Pleniores Plenissimae that can secure you from being burned tho you want a Priest which is done two manner of waies either by impowering you to make your Groom or the next Man or Woman that you meet with a lawful Officer to absolve you because these Indulgences are such unsacramental Pardons which may be as well applied k Suarez de Indulg Deip. 49. Sect. 3. n. 6. as granted without any Priestly Character or by wording your Indulgence in such terms as shall require no Body at all l Ibid. Disput. 56. Sect. 1. n. 3. to apply it
and in that case they say the Pope himself is the immediate Priest who absolves you at any distance 5. When you have this you have not yet all for there is another sort of sins that this Indulgence how large soever takes it may be no notice of to wit all the sins which you may hazard your self into by presuming on the strength of this Indulgence Some of your best Directors tell you m Navar. de Jubil Notab 34. n. 6. that nothing is a sin which you are emboldened to do by the hope of the next Jubilee or of a most plenary Bull such as Friends and Money can easily procure you from Rome or at the least that what you do tho the venturing were a sin yet it cannot at all debar you from the benefit of this Pool that washes all your filth away Yet I hear of some other great ones and Saints too who will except presumtuous sins when they apply these large Pardons For thus runs the Absolution n Archiep. Flor. 1. p. tit 10. c. 3. Authoritate c. that is By the authority of the Apostolical See committed to me I absolve thee of all thy sins excepting those which thou hast committed by relying on this Indulgence Get therefore your most full Indulgence to be made fuller by the addition of those sins and then die when and how you please your Soul is safe 6. But and if you would be so good as to get in by the same means somewhat to pleasure your Friends with call for an Indulgence such as you find one o Rosar Viterb 1645. p. 216. at St. Laurence without the Walls of Rome on Easter Wednesday or at St. Athanasia p Ibid. pag. 212. the day before an Indulgence with 18 or 28 thousand Years of true Pardon and as many Quarantins and withal the power of rescuing any Soul from out of the Flames of Purgatory Thus by this large accumulation of good and Ghostly Privileges you may take the full Indulgence for your self save Father or Mother out of Burning and bestow the Quarantins and other odd Years on your Friends 7. If his Roman Holiness be graciously pleased to add to it these two Clauses Ad instar Jubilaei and Quantum se Claves extendunt that is After the manner of a Jubilee and As far as the Keies of the Church can reach this is absolutely a Plenary and more Plenary and most Plenary Indulgence With this for ought I know you may save all the World and your self however you may secure all the Crimes and Incests and Sodomies which you find expiated and paid for in the Popes Apostolical q Taxa Cancellariae Chamber For who can tell what that is which St. Peters Keies cannot fetch in And what is too much to be taken out of an infinite Tresure and to be given r Suarez Disp 50. Sect. 1. n. 2. out of it by an unlimited Power Quaecunque solveris c. The main difficulty of the business is that such a large and comprehensive Indulgence is like to stand you at a high price For such gracious Concessions as you may see at large in the Roman s Taxa Cancellariae Edit Paris 1520. Chancery Office must all be granted after the proportion of what they give So much for having killed t Ibid. Pag. 58. your Father and so much for him that hath ravished u Ibid. p. 57. Sister and Mother but there 's no Dispensation or Mercy for him who hath a mind to pay x S. Antonin 1. p. tit 10. c. 3. nothing You may be absolved from sins which you have not actually confessed if you had a mind to confess them and your Indulgence on this account will accept of an intended Confession But so cannot the Roman Office of an intended paiment the sum such as it is must be laid down Papa non debet c. saies a great z August de Anron de Potest Pap. q. 3. ad 3. Man The Pope ought not so to grant Indulgences to them who would fain pay as to them who pay actually And in this case saies he the rich Men have the a Ibid. better Title to the Blessedness which the Pope gives as our Savior saies The poor have it to that which he is pleased to give himself Luke 6.20 Quia b Taxa Cancell fol. 23. non sunt c. saies his Holiness Book of Rates Whosoever hath no Money cannot be comforted with Pardons and if you will have it in other terms Such full Indulgences are Jewels for Kings and great Persons let them be never so profane not for poor and private Men let them be never so pious But nevertheless do not despond in this good Catholic way for the Pope takes care of you in the care he takes for himself You must not think that some few Grandees are able to make up the vast sums which he raiseth out of Indulgences It is all that whole Europe can do Therefore besides those few Indulgences which you shall find in some great Houses as in Corporations and Cities not only for the Lord the Lady the Children Male and Female who are living but for many Generations and hundreds of Years after them so the Protestant Heresie may never creep into these Houses besides these great and hereditary Indulgences I say which are proper to some Families the Pope scatters others as good for their present occasion throout all the Catholic Countries 1. Sometimes Princes will engage for all and accommodate his Holiness with c Histor Concil Trid. l. 8. a good lusty sum of ready Money suppose 200 thousand Ducats that they may sell them in retail and at small rates among their Subjects or the Pope will engage those Princes with some d Polyd. Virgil. l. 26. pag. 602. Edit Basil 1534. considerable share in the Profits to countenance his Officers if he will retail them himself Thus all passages being made free Friers will run all over the World of whom you and every Man else may have their Merchandise for a small matter If your Parson will take as much as he thinks may serve his Parish as heretofore Rectors e Flor. Raemund de Orat. Progress Haeres l. 1. c. 8. and Curats used to do in hope of gaining somthing for their pains and for the ease of their poor Flock you are like to have it cheaper Whether the Blood of Jesus Christ follows both forward and backward all the motions of these Merchants or whether God in whose hand is the Church Tresure will punctually send as much of it as makes the Indulgence worth the buying whether and whensoever the Pope of Rome for his own ends will send his Bulls is not the Point in question But however these great Indulgences full or emty such as they are can by the means of these Hucksters both return Millions back to Rome and come home ready to your hands for eighteen pence Over