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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	church_n	father_n	word_n	3,081	5	4.2090	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66213	The missionarie's arts discovered, or, An account of their ways of insinuation, their artifices and several methods of which they serve themselves in making converts with a letter to Mr. Pulton, challenging him to make good his charge of disloyalty against Protestants, and an historical preface, containing an account of their introducing the heathen gods in their processions, and other particulars relating to the several chapters of this treatise.	Wake, William, 1657-1737.; Hickes, George, 1642-1715.	1688 (1688)	Wing W246A; ESTC R4106	113,409	130

then made insomuch that Saint Ambrose is positive it is not of the flesh but of the Faith of Peter that this is said but that main stream of Antiquity runs this way to establish that exposition which St. Austin so plainly gives that the Church was established upon that Faith which Peter had then confessed when he said thou art Christ the Son of the living God nay so far are the Ancient Writers from being unanimous in this point that there are three several Opinions among them some and but very few affirming it was Peter's Person in the same sense as all the Apostles are called the Foundation of the Church others that it was himself CHRIST designed by the word ROCK and the third that which I have mention'd that it was the Faith then confessed by St. Peter which hath near threescore Fathers and Councils to authorise it where the first hath hardly six judge now on which side the NEMINE CONTRA DICENTE lies By this time I think it pretty evident that these Gentlemen are too much akin to those who are desirous to be Teachers of the Law but understand not or at least mind not what they say nor whereof they affirm which makes the Advice of one of themselves in another case very seasonable who tells us that this huffing humour is caution enough to any reasonable man to take care for if it be our duty to take nothing in Religion upon trust it is certainly of very great concern that we be suspicious in trusting those whose insincerity is so very great that they are not asham'd to publish the most palpable Vntruths what is to be expected then from their discourses with ignorant and unwary men especially in private where they are in no such danger of being expos'd CHAP. III. Of their Slanders WHen the Prophet Jeremiah was in the name of the Lord endeavouring to Reform the Corruptions of the JEWISH CHURCH he complains that his enemies said one to another Come and let us devise devices against him and let us smite him with the Tongue Report say they and we will report it which made him give that Caution and Advice to those who obeyed the Voice of the LORD by him Take ye heed every one of his Neighbour and trust ye not in any Brother for every Brother will utterly supplant and every Neighbour will walk in Slanders whose Case being so very like that of the REFORMED CHURCHES both in the work he undertook REFORMATION and in the opposition which was made to him by CALUMNIES and SLANDERS his Advice is as seasonable to us as to the Reforming Jews we having to deal with a politick sort of men who notwithstanding the WISE Solomon hath pronounc'd that he that uttereth Slanders is a fool establish it as a Maxim which they are very diligent observers of THAT IT IS NO MORTAL SIN TO CALVMNIATE FALSLY TO PRESERVE ONES HONOVR like the Hereticks St. Augustine speaks of who not being able to defend their Cause set themselves to revile their adversaries spreading the most false reports that seeing they cannot evade the force or obscure the evidence of the truth contained in the holy Scriptures they may render those who preach it odious by reporting all the evil of them they can invent I know this is a severe charge and will be look't upon even by many sober and impartial men as uncharitable but if they can either prove that the passages I relate are false or the Authors I cite who maintain it lawfull are forged and corrupted I am willing to lie under that imputation But on the other side if they prove to be truly cited I must desire of the Reader that their Character of religious men and their formal pretences to sincerity may be look't upon as indeed they are but a fair covering and cloak for their designs and I CHALLENGE the WHOLE BODY of them to prove one particular Instance or Citation false wherein I do not as Mr. Pulton in his Remarks charge those Slanders on them which are only the additions which a story gets by running from hand to hand for I know it is possible a man may relate things that are false without being guilty of the Slander by being deceived in the account which was given him of those matters but when men make it their business to defame and assert the lawfulness of doing it by false Reports I think it is no piece of injustice or want of Charity to call them SLANDERERS I am not insensible that the generality of men are apt to reason with themselves that surely Religious Men cannot be of such sear'd Consciences as to damn themselves by such malicious backbiting but in this case such a reflexion is ungrounded for their great Casuists defend it to be lawfull and are so far from being apprehensive of damnation that they justifie its practice as Father Dicastillo informs us I have maintained saith he and do still maintain that Calumny when it is used against a Calumniator though grounded on absolute Falsities is not for that any mortal sin either against Justice or Charity And to prove it I have brought a cloud of our Fathers to witness it and whole Vniversities consisting of them all whom I have consulted and among others the Reverend Father John Gans Confessor to the Emperor the Reverend Father Daniel Bastele Confessor to the Arch Duke Leopold Father Henry sometimes Preceptor to those two PRINCES All the publick and ordinary Professors of the Vniversity of Vienna all the Professors of the Vniversity of Grats all the Professors of the Vniversity of Prague of all whom I have at hand the Approbations of my opinion written and sign'd with their own hands Besides that I have on my side Father Pennalossa a Jesuite and Confessor to the King of Spain Father Pillecorolli a Jesuite and many others And when this was objected to the Jesuits by the Author of the Provincial Letters in his fifteenth Letter the Answerers of that Letter where they undertake to defend themselves instead of condemning add more Authority to Father Dicastillo's Position by citing several Authors besides those mentioned before in defence of it Neither do they deny the Doctrine of Caramuel who asserts that it is a probable opinion that it is not any mortal sin to caiumniate falsly to preserve ones honour for it is maintained by above TWENTY grave Doctors so that if this Doctrine be not probable there is hardly any such in all the body of Divinity And the same is asserted by the Theses of the Jesuits at Lovain Ann. 1645. in case of calumniating and imposing false Crimes to ruine their Credit who speak ill of us Besides these Vniverslties and Divines who teach the lawfulness of Calumnies and false Reports we find it among other Rules of the Jesuits that they should be sure to put this Doctrine in Practice even against those of their own Cummunion the

obedience with the humble what great imployment with stirring and metall'd spirits what perpetual quiet with heavy and restive bodies what content the pleasant nature can take in pastimes and jollity what contrariwise the austere mind in discipline and rigour what love either chastity can raise in the pure or voluptuousness in the dissolute what allurements are in knowledge to draw the contemplative or in actions of state to possess the practick dispositions what with the hopefull prerogative of reward can work what errors doubts and dangers with the fearfull what change of vows with the rash of estate with the inconstant what pardons with the faulty or supplies with the defective what miracles with the credulous what visions with the fantastical what gorgeousness of shews with the vulgar and simple what multitude of ceremonies with the superstitious and ignorant what prayer with the devout what with the charitable works of piety what rules of higher perfection with elevated affections what dispencing with breach of all rules with men of lawless conditions And so he goes on to shew how the very constitution of their Church is made up of such contrariety which I shall insist farther on in another place my business here being to shew how they are prepared to fit each temper and inclination with suitable discourses and allurements They know the greatest part of men in the world are either very much taken with gaudy and pompous sights which bewitch their senses and so wholly possess them as to take away all room for rational reflexions or so charm'd with the delights of their belov'd corruptions that they are unwilling to part with them To catch the first sort we find them boasting of the splendour and outward glory of the Church of Rome to such a degree that they have made this pomp a mark of the True Church this is observ'd by an ingenious Author of their own Communion That they insist much upon the fine Churches they have at Rome whose admirable Structure doth greatly edifie Believers and as Cardinal Pallavicini says lib. 8. c. 17. is of it self capable to convert infidel Princes this way of catching people by gaudy Shews and splendid Sights is look't on with such a favourable Eye among them that the three Bishops from Bononia in a Letter of Advice to Pope Julius the Third observe that the vulgar are given to admire and to be amused with these things in the contemplation of which their minds are as it were so intangled that they have no relish for any other Food no inclination to any other Doctrine they affirm that they were design'd for that purpose and therefore give it as their Judgment that they should be augmented and multiplied for say they if the introducing and appointing those few which we have mention'd were of such use to the Settlement of your Kingdom of what advantage would it be were there some new ones added and this Advice was so exactly observed that the excellent Richerius a Doctor of the Sorbon tells us that this was the the Scope and Design of the Reformation established by the TRENT COUNCIL nothing being effected for the Truth but external Pomp provided for so that innumerable splendid gaudy Ceremonies were dayly invented whence proceeded a magnificent and theatrical Way of adorning their Churches the Sacerdotal Ornaments glittering with Gold and Silver while the Priests who wore them were mere Stocks by which Artifices the peoples minds were amus'd and insensibly drawn from the consideration of the necessity of Reformation which made the learn'd Andreas Masius complain that Piety was extinguished and Discipline neglected while all Applications were made and Inventions used to increase their Pomp. The glittering Gold in their Temples and curious Images of Saints and Angels the numerous and stately Altars the mighty silver Statues the rich and glorious Vestments you see up and down in their Churches strike the Senses into a kind of Ecstasy which they are so sensible of that with all their Rhetorick they enlarge upon this Subject striving to perswade their intended Proselytes to see with what Magnificence they perform their Worship thus when his MAJESTY of Blessed Memory KING CHARLES the First being then Prince was in the Spanish Court there were great Summs expended in solemn glittering Processions and their Churches set out with their richest Ornaments to charm his Senses but he was too well grounded in his Religion to be caught with that Bait And I remember this is given by Capt. Robert Everard as a Motive to his Conversion as he calls it to the Roman Church The great use they make of it enclines me to believe this device is accompanied with more than ordinary Success it is also so universal that in the Indies they have these Pageants to delight the Senses and Phancies of the INDIANS Against Christmass Day they set up a thatch't House like a Stall in some Corner of their Churches with a Blazing-Star over it pointing to the three Wise Men from the ●ast within this Stall they lay a Crib and the Image of a Child the Virgin Mary standing on one side and Joseph on the other there is likewise an Ass and an Ox the three Wise Men kneel and offer their Gifts the Shepherds stand aloof off with theirs and the Angels hang about the Stall with several Instruments of Musick and there is scarce an Indian that cometh not to see this Bethleem as we are assured by one who was a Fryer and dwelt in those parts above twelve Years who gives several other Instances of the same Nature I have frequently been answered by their Converts when desiring to know what they found amiss in our Church that we d●d nothing to keep up the Remembrance of our Saviour which they were at the greatest Charges to effect and I have received a Relation from a Gentleman very conversant among them which for several Reasons I think worth inserting This Gentleman in his Travels being at Brussels in the Low-Countries was often invited by the Priests there to their Churches and Convents after some time spent in debating Points in difference between the two Churches they finding no probability of his Conversion one day told him there would be a great Ceremony at such a Church the Fryday following being Good-Fryday at which they desired he would be present one of them adding that he thought the sight of it alone was enough to convert any Heretick and instanced in one or two Persons on whom it had a very powerfull effect according to their desire the Gentleman went and by the motion he felt in himself the Representation being so lively that it melted him into Tears doth profess he believes the weaker sort of men who are not very well grounded in their Religion may be strangely altered by such a sight tho' upon deliberation he found it so gross a piece of IDOLATRY that it created in him a greater detestation of the Religion

The Fathers saith he were of opinion that Antichrist should one day seize upon the most Magnificent Temples of the Christians this was the opinion of St. Hilary and of St. Jerome this last mentions the very Rock of Tarpeius Therefore the Popes ought not to glory over-much in their Buildings since Antichrist shall one day place himself in them I like well enough to see such fine things as these but I confess that I have more devotion in a little Church without magnificence or rich ornaments than I have in such places I find that my devotion does insensibly divide and that sense doth sometimes carry away a part of my mind and transport it to sensible objects which do not deserve it and that my affection is thereby weakned whatever care I take to gather it up and unite it This hath a much more dangerous effect upon the Common people who have no knowledge and whose Religion lyes onely in their eyes and ears they do in an horrible manner fasten on these things which are onely obvious to their sense and go no higher And shall these things which the sober Romanists themselves confess to be an hinderance of piety destructive to devotion and fit to prevail upon none but fools be the motives to rational men to leave the pure worship of God to have their eyes delighted by gaudy shews and their ears pleased with all sorts of musick I doubt not but the doctrine of Ecstasies and raptures so highly applauded in the Romish Church hath its greatest support from these external glories which are proper to raise the affections to such a pleasing height as renders them almost insensible which though onely the effect of the pleasure the senses are entertain'd with are by them extoll'd as holy motions and divine illuminations while the soul is not at all affected or better'd by such transports There lyes therefore an indispensable obligation upon every person but especially upon such as by their natural dispositions are apt to be affected by such things to keep a constant and severe watch over their affections that they do not blind their understandings remembring Religion consists in the Vnderstanding and Will being rightly informed and directed not in the motion of the spirits and tickling of the senses the Doctrine of the Gospel being designed for the good of Souls never an Article of it calculated to gratifie and please the flesh Besides how unreasonable is it that those things which ANTICHRIST shall boast of and pride himself in should be ever us'd as an argument to proselyte any to a party as if they must needs be the onely true Church because in this they resemble ANTICHRIST If men would but seriously reflect it is an easie matter to perceive even from hence that what I noted in the Introduction of their designs is true for what doth all these glorious shews tend to the making a man wise unto salvation or the fitting him for the enjoyment of God All the tendency they can have is to work upon mens affections which I before observ'd is their main design Now we know that such emotions are seldom permanent which made the excellent Richerius speaking of these things though himself a Papist affirm That those who thought these methods would be long of force will in a little time find themselves mightily deceived And this is not unknown to the Missionaries who therefore strike while the Iron continues hot and ply the person whose affections are thus raised with their Miracles their Holiness and such particulars which we shall discourse of anon And I cannot think it one of the least weighty considerations to deter men from being gull'd by such trifles to reflect that these things are designed either for such as have no real sense of Religion or to bring them to have none the first sort being very glad of such a Worship as gratifies their voluptuous humours and others more soberly inclin'd are thereby taught to worship God wholly in a sensual manner and so estrang'd from the pure and spiritual part of Religion which God alone delights in Neither is this method onely calculated for such but they have likewise a singular dexterity in accommodating themselves even to the vices and corruptions they find men most addicted to if ambitious they endeavour to feed that humour if voluptuous to gratifie them in that if revengefull they permit them to follow their inclinations if covetous though of all vices they are most enrag'd against that yet for a while they can find a way not to be grievous to them and as pliable they are to the prodigal This is an observation made of the Jesuites by several Doctors of the Sorbonne in Paris They speak of nothing but magnificence and liberality to those who are vain telling them that by these actions they establish their reputation and the more to puff them up with such conceits they cite examples to that purpose Nay lest they should be terrified with the torments of Purgatory after this life Bellarmine affirms that in probability there is a Purgatory where those pains are not endured which is seconded by many of their Divines who together with Bellarmine found it upon Revelations made to venerable Bede and others and Aquila expresly and purposely defends this opinion And lest they should grow cold considering that they must not meet with sensual joys in Heaven all the happiness of the bless●d Spirits consisting in the Vision of God which these voluptuous men cannot apprehend any great delight in they have therefore coined a new description of that happy place affirming that there shall be a sovereign pleasure in kissing and embracing the Bodies of the Blessed that the Angels shall put on womens Habits and appear to the Saints in the dress of Ladies that women shall rise with long Hair and appear with Ribbands and Laces as they do upon Earth that married people shall kiss one another and their Children as in this life Thus these subtil Deceivers will rather follow Mahomet's steps in asserting a sensual Paradise than lose one of their Proselytes I neither design here to enlarge upon this Subject nor pretend to instance in all their turnings and artifices to this end the first because I refer it to another Head when I come to treat of their disguising and varying their Doctrine the latter because I cannot pretend to do it their Arts being numberless but by such instances as these are the Reader may easily discover them when they act a part of the same nature In Christmas Ann. 1624. one Father Leech told Mr. J. Gee That if any but hear Mass and after hearing be sprinkled with holy-Water and kiss the Priest's Garments he could not commit that day any mortal sin though he would never so fain and my Author cites in the Margin some Authors who teach the same an excellent Maxim to make the greatest Sin become none at all and very much a-kin

by their Fathers and so upward from the Apostles times but the Doctrine of the deposing power was believed as a matter of faith therefore it was deliver'd from the Apostles times let them either answer this Argument which is their own upon other points or confess that the deposing power is an Article of Faith in that Church for if the Argument be good it proves that to be an Article of Faith as well as others if it be not th●y give up all their brags of the Evidence of Oral Tradition from hand to hand so much insisted on by Mr. G. and others of their Champions among us But because it may be objected that the deposing Bulls were the effects of the passionate Tempers of those Popes I desire that one of their own Communion may be heard in that point who speaks thus I maintain that all these disasters proceeded not only from the pettish humour of any one Pope but were the natural effects of the principles of the Papacy and though we do not see it visibly break forth every day by some bloody Example yet we ought not to believe that the habit or the will is ever the less but that there is some external extraordinary Reason which suspends the Action and which doth sometimes make them act directly contrary to their own Inclination How can any man maintain that Princes need not stand in the fear of the Pope when three Popes of this present Age have condemned the opinion that the Pope cannot depose Kings as wicked and contrary to the Faith And now I have examined and refuted their Calumny of our Disloyalty in general and Mr. Pulton's Charge in particular which I have known asserted by others with so peculiar a confidence that it hath stagger'd many Loyal but weak Protestants in which as in All the rest of this Discourse I once again challenge the whole Body of the Romish Clergy to find one false Quotation and by the falsity of Mr. Pulton's Assertion I beg the Reader to judge what Credit the rest of their defaming Insinuations deserve CHAP. V. Of their laying Doctrines to our charge which we never taught AFter such a bold Assertion as that of Mr. Pultons which I refuted in the preceding Chapter we need not wonder if we meet with the same Treatment which the Christians in Tertullian's time under went seeing we have to do with a sort of Men who repeat their Slanders the oftner they are reprov'd and not asham'd to impute Doctrines to the Reformed which their Confessions disclaim and the Writings of their Divines confute At a time when the Gentlemen of that Communion make so loud Complaints of being misrepresented as to their doctrines and practices and with the utmost of their Rhetorick exaggerate the Injury which by such Misrepresentations is done to Truth and their Church it might rationally be expected that they should believe what they say and have some Sense of such injust proceedings or at least should in policy take care that their own Writings be not stuffed with false Charges against their Adversaries But it is somewhat surprizing to find no care taken in so material a point and that they are no more solicitous to represent our Doctrines right than to defend their own which they seem wholly to abandon if any pains be taken by them it is to bespatter the Protestants and coin opinions for them for they find it much more easie to refute those imaginary Positions than overthrow the well-grounded Tenets of the Reformed Churches Hence it is that that there is no Calumny so absurd which they blush to publish and that the old Charge against the Waldenses and Albigenses is renued by the Author of Popery Anatomiz'd who copies from the Jesuit Parsons affirming that they denyed the Resurrection of the dead or that there is any such place as Hell that with the Manichees they held two Gods and that it avails a man nothing to say his Prayers with several other Doctrines of a horrid nature but if we consult the Authors that wrote in and near the time we shall find a quite contrary Account that they were to all appearance a very pious people living righteously before men and believing all things rightly concerning God and all the Articles of the Creed and that their lives were more holy than other Christians insomuch that when the King of France sent Commissioners to enquire of and inspect their Life and Doctrine and they inform'd him that they baptiz'd and taught the Articles of the Creed and Precepts of the Decalogue observ'd the Lord's Day preached the Word of God and that they were not guilty of those abominable Crimes imputed to them he SWORE that THEY WERE BETTER THAN HE OR HIS PEOPLE WHO WERE CATHOLICKS But though the Romanists have no Authority for their Charge yet they have a motive which is always prevalent in that Church the Waldenses and with great freedom reprov'd the Vices of the Pope and Clergy and this was the chief thing which subjected them to such an universal hatred and caused several wicked Opinions to be father'd upon them which they never own'd For they agreed with the Faith of the Protestants at this day as Popliniere affirms who alledgeth the Acts of a Disputation between the Bishop of Pamiers and Arnoltot Minister of Lombres written in a Language favouring much of the Catalan Tongue affirming that some had assured him that the Articles of their Faith were yet to be seen engraven 〈◊〉 certain old Tables in Alby agreeing exactly with the Reforme● Churches And Mr. Fountain Minister of the French Church at London told Arch-bishop Vsher that in his time a Confession of the Albigenses was found which was approved of by a Synod of French Protestants Thus as the Romanists have brought most of the Heathens Rites and the ceremonious part of their Worship into theirs so they seem to be actuated by the same Spirit which taught the Pagans to represent our Holy Religion in the most odious manner and they have found such success attending this unchristian Artifice that it is hugg'd as their darling and when any party discovers their Corruptions they endeavour to expose them as men of seditious Principles which will effectually render Princes jealous of them and draw upon them the displeasure of those under whose protection they might otherwise be secure that the common people may entertain as great an Aversion to them it is not onely their practice but a principle of their Policy laid down by a famous Jesuite to charge them with such Opinions as are absurd in themselves and abhorr'd by all men By this means they are sure to possess the vulgar with such prejudices that they will lend no Ear to the other side whom they look upon as a sort of Monsters according to the Character these Politicians have given of them And such Opinions being easily confuted if they can but once perswade an ignorant