for Fasting our Blessed Saviour Fasted (c) Mat. 4.2 forty days and forty nights He foretells his Disciples (d) Mar. 2 20. fasting when the Bridegroom should be taken from them that is after his Ascension He directs us how to Fast and promises a Reward (e) Mat. 6.17 to our Fastings when duly performed He teaches that Fasting (f) Mat. 17.20 Mar. 9.29 gives us a power over the Devils When any Work of great moment was to be done Fasting was used (g) Acts 13.2 As the Disciples or Apostles ministred to the Lord and Fasted the Holy Ghost said With Fasting (h) Acts 14.23 and Prayer S. Paul and S. Barnabas were Consecrated A postles These with Fasting and Prayers (i) 2 Cor. 6.5 ordained Bishops in every Church And S. Paul several times speaks of his Fastings (k) 2 Cor. 11.27 In watchings in fastings Again In hunger and thirst in fastings often What was the Practice of the Christians of the Second Age Tertllian will teach us Apolog. pag. 40. cap. 71 where having reproached the Pagans with their Feastings in Times of Public Calamities he represents the contrary Life of Christians Nos verò jejuniis aridi omni continentiâ expressi ab omni vitae fruge delati in sacco cinere volutantes invidiâ coelum tundimus Deum tangimus cùm misericordiam extorserimus Jupiter honoratur You Feast says he but we dried up with Fasting living in perfect Continency abstaining from all Contents of this Life prostrate in Sackcloth and Ashes charge Heaven with the Odium of afflicting Persons so much afflicted and when we have by these Penitential Works forced God to take pity of the World Jupiter is honored by you For the third Age see what Moses Maximus and other Confessors required of Penitents Jejunio extenuari that they should grow lean with Fasting All the subsequent Ages give as many Testimonies to the Duty and Advantages of Fasting as there are are of any Work of Piety This the Fathers teach in their Sermons the Bishops commanded in their Canons the faithful Practise in their Lives and all recommend by their Example Nay Protestants themselves own this Truth The Author of the Duty of Man Sunday 5. n. 34. To this Duty of Repentance says he Fasting is very proper to be annexed the Scripture usually joyns them together If you desire to know the Fruits of Fasting S. Thom. 2.2 q. 147. a. 1. names three 1. To mortifie and curb our Bodies 2. To raise our Mind to Heavenly things 3. To punish in our selves the ill use of some Creatures by depriving our selves of the use of others A fourth Reason is to increase Merit Grace and Glory Virtutem largiris praemia says the Church in Praef. Quad. SECTION II. Prayer PRayer being a raising of our Souls to God it exposes our Understanding to the Divine Light and places our Will in the warmth of Divine Love Wherefore nothing can be more efficacious to clear our Mind from its Ignorance and Darkness nor to purge our Will from its depraved Affections and Passions It is a Key which opens the Treasure of God's Mercy and opens our Heart to receive its Effects It is a River of Benediction whose Waters cleanse our Soul from its Imperfections moisten our Heart make our good Purposes bud forth and flourish and fill our Will with the Fruits of Vertue It is often recommended in Scripture See (a) Mar. 13.33 watch and pray Pray (b) Mat. 26.41 that you enter not into tentation (c) Luc. 16.8 You must always pray and never faint All Places and all Times are fit for Prayer God limits neither but promises to hear us always Ask and you shall receive Whatsoever you shall ask my Father in my name he will grant it you Particularly Remission of Sins is annexed to it Hear S. Austin Enchir. c. 71. De quotidianis brevibus levibusque peccatis sine quibus haec vita non ducitur quotidiana oratio fidelium satisfacit Eorum est enim dicere Pater noster qui es in coelis qui jam Patri tali regenerati sunt ex aquâ Spiritu sancto Delet omninò haec Oratio minima quotidiana peccata Delet illa à quibus vita fidelium sceleratè etiam gesta sed poenitentiâ in melius mutatâ discedit si quemadmodum veraciter dicitur Dimitte nobis debita nostra Ita veraciter dicatur sicut nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris Id est si fiat quod dicitur The daily Prayers of the Faithful satisfie for those daily light and small sins which are incident to all in this Life these we call Venial Sins for it belongs properly to those to say Our Father which art in Heaven who are regenerated by Water and the Holy Ghost to such a Father This Prayer blots out little sins It hath a vertue also to carry away the guilt of greater sins in those who are repentant of them provided they as truly forgive as they ask to be forgiven that is they do what they say Sir how different was S. Austin's Judgment from yours He thought those Prayers efficacious to blot out venial and even mortal sins and you think the prescribing them Ridiculous Saying the Penitential Psalms is an Object of Laughter to you Were there any Church Discipline among you or had your Prelates any true Zeal for any part of Devotion you would be forced to change your note the saying the Psalms being the only part of Devotion which you retain But it seems Writing against Popery hath a Vertue to sanctifie all Impiety as acting against it did excuse all Sacrilege I never heard any Man moved to Laughter with reading the Psalms and I have known many moved by them to Compunction to a new Life and to the Love of God. Let S. Austin who experienced it himself speak lib. 9. Confess cap. 4. Dulce mihi sit ô Domine confiteri tibi quibus internis me stimulis perdomueris quemadmodum me complanaveris humiliatis montibus collibus cogitationum mearum tortuosa mea direxeris aspera lenieris quas tibi Deus meus voces dedi cùm legerem Psalmos David cantica fidelia sonos pietatis excludentes turgidum spiritum Quas tibi voces dabam in Psalmis illis quomodo in te inflammabar ex eis accendebar eos recitare si possem toto orbe terrarum adversus typhum generis humani I take a delight O my Lord to confess to thee with what inward Goads thou didst subdue me and by what Means thou didst bring me down levelling the greater and lesser Mountains of my Thoughts How thou didst streighten my crookedness and smooth my roughness Into what Exclamations did I break out O my God when I read the Psalms of David those faithful Canticles those pious Sounds which banish all proud Spirits How I cried out in reading them How I was inflamed in the love of thee how I
of Opinions opposite to the Power and Life of Christianity I know none who hath a better Title to it than your Reformation For the Life of Christianity is Faith and Charity and you have destroy'd the first by Heresie and the second by Schism as shall be proved hereafter Children delight in edged Tools which serve only to cut their fingers and you and your Brethren use weapons against us which wound your selves Fatal Experience might have taught you more Discretion than to be still moving that stone which hath once crush'd both your Church and State to pieces And truly the Reproach of Antichristian will fall on your Church if prov'd against ours For say what you please of the ancient Britans the first Apostles of the English who brought us the light of Faith and planted the Gospel amongst us came from Rome The Hierarchy you pretend to came from thence By Authority from the Pope my Lord of Canterbury is Primate and my Lord of London is his Suffragan By the same Authority the Country is divided into Dioceses your Deans and Chapters setl'd your Universities founded and several Degrees instituted in them If the Pope be the Antichrist both Universities and Hierarchy amongst you is Antichristian Moreover the Livings you enjoy were for the most part if not altogether given by the pious Liberality of Persons who profest that Faith we profess and lived and died in the Communion of our Church Gratitude to such Benefactors may teach you to judge less severely to suspend your Judgment till you have more convincing Arguments to ground it on than your own bare and bold Assertion CHAP. III. The true Designs of Christian Religion THe Design of God in establishing Religion was that Men should serve him in this World and enjoy him in the next that they (a) Psal 126.5 here sow with tears there reap with joy now run (b) 2 Tim. 4.7 8. their race and fight their battel then receive their crown Rivers (c) Eccles 1.7 receive their waters from the Sea and return to it again And Religion receives its beginning from God runs through all Ages to return to God again Each Man before his Creation is Creatrix essentia says S. Anselm From which by Creation he is separated and by Regeneration and the good Works which follow it he returns to him again never more to be separated from him The first Action is of God alone the rest are of God and Man For God (d) Aug. Qui te creavit sine te non te salvabit sine te will not compleat the Work of our Salvation with out the Cooperation of Man. God (e) Subest tibi cum volueris posse can do all without Man but will not Man (f) Sine me nihil potestis facere Jo. 15.5 can do nothing without God from whom he must expect prevenient concomitant and subsequent Graces for all and every meritorious Action That Bliss which God prepares for us in the next Life contains God himself and when enjoy'd renders the thrice happy Soul like (a) Similes ei erimus 1 Jo. 3.2 unto God and we must attain to it by means proportionable which partake of the resemblance Wherefore our Understanding must be like that of God believing him and our Will loving him The first is Faith the second Charity to which add Hope to keep our Soul steady amidst the Difficulties of this Life as an Anchor (b) Heb. 6.19 fixes a Ship And you have the three Vertues call'd Theological because they rely immediately on Almighty God Faith on his Veracity or Truth in affirming Hope on his Fidelity in promising and Goodness as he is our Chief Good And Charity on his Goodness in its self Which Three Vertues contain what is required of us in this Life Whatsoever is required to a good life is known as we know what to believe to hope and to love Says (c) Aug. Ench. c. 4. Omnia quae requiris proculdubio scies diligenter sciendo quid credi quid sperari debeat quid amari Haec enim maximè imò verò sola in Religione sequenda sunt S. Austin Which are the only things Religion regards as being designed only for these three Vertues But are we not oblig'd to keep the Commandments Or do not they advance towards Heaven who run (a) Psal 119.32 in the paths which God hath traced out And how come these to be omitted Answer They are not ommitted but are contained in Charity (b) Rom. 13.8 9. He that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law our whole Duty to our Neighbour and the Commandments relating to him being briefly comprehended in this Saying Love thy Neighbor as thy self As our whole Duty to God is contained in that other Saying Love God above all things (c) Matt. 22.40 On these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets These are the two Rootes (d) Matt. 7.17 of the good tree which brings forth good fruit As love of our selves is the root of the bad tree which brings forth bad fruit The (e) Aug. Serm. 44. de Temp. Radix omnium bonorum est Charitas sicut radix omnium malorum est Cupiditas root of all good is Charity as the root of all evil is Concupiscence Again (f) Aug. l. de moribus Eccl. c. 25. Nihil aliud est bene vivere quam toto corde totâ animâ totâ mente Deum deligere To live well is to love God with all our Heart with all our Soul with all our Mind I should as easily write out the whole new Testament as endeavour to cite all the passages which directly or indirectly commend Charity Seeing all tend to extinguish in us self-Love and to kindle Divine Love. In it Divine Love sometimes is preferr'd before (a) 1 Cor. 13. the Tongues of Men and Angels before Faith working Miracles before knowledge of the greatest Mysteries Almsgiving c. It is call'd (b) Col. 3.14 The bond of perfection the end (c) 1 Tim. 5. or intent of the Commandments c. I end with the Words of the beloved and loving Disciple (d) Jo. 4.16 God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him Wherefore with Reason S. Austin (e) Aug l. de laudibus Charitatis said Ille tenet quicquid latet quicquid patet in divinis sermonibus qui servat Charitatem in moribus I should not have been so long upon a Point of which I thought none could be ignorant who reads the Scriptures or knows the Rudiments of Christianity did not I perceive that you either never knew it or have forgotten it And When (f) Heb. 5.12 for the time and your Vocation you should be a teacher you have need that one should teach you which be the first Principles of the Oracles of God. For how happens it that in relating the Designs of Christian Religion there is not one clear
the Novatians unreasonable who preached Penance and denied the Fruit of it lib. 1. de Poenit. c. 16. Frustra dicitis vos praedicare Poenitentiam qui tollitis c. And lib. 2. cap. 3. Merendi gratia Sacramenti ad precandum impellimur hoc auferre vultis propter quod agitur Poenitentia Tolle gubernatori perveniendi spem in mediis fluctibus incertus errabit Tolle luctatori coronam lentus jacebit in stadio Tolle piscatori capiendi efficaciam desinet jactare retia In hopes of arriving at his Haven the Pilot steers his Ship The Wrestler strives in hope to throw his Adversary The Fisher casts his Nets in hope of catching some Fish All these would relent were they persuaded the thing they aimed at were impossible How then do you expect that Men should practise good Works when you teach them to hope for no good from them It were indeed to be wished that Men would serve God for God without regarding any Reward But that is a Perfection all do not arrive to and even the best are fain to use some other Motives A Fifth Your Clergy is utterly unfit to Direct and Instruct such Houses our Works have a greater influence on our Neighbors than our Words S. Jerom thought it incongruous that a Man with a full Belly should Preach Fasting And how can a Man Preach Chastity to others who comes himself from the Embraces of his Wife if he hath one or hath his Head full of Amourettes and Designs to get one if he be a Batchelor It is in vain therefore that you seek the advantage of those withdrawing Places from the noise and trouble of the World to those devout Solitudes your Lives are not fit for them your Doctrin is inconsistent with them and your past Actions have shut that Door of Mercy unto you As for Books of Devotion the Author of the Fiat Lux says you have Printed several such composed by ours under your own Names So you hang us and cherish our Writings as the Jews stoned the Prophets and canonized their Books You own we have many excellent Books all the World sees you have scarce any nor can rationally hope for any For he who writes a Spiritual Book ought to aim at two things The First to instruct the Understanding with Divine and Eternal Truths The Second to move the Will to a Hatred of Sin a Contempt of the World and to the Love of God above all things The first may be an Effect of Study but the second cannot be attained unto unless the Author be such himself He must as S. John be A burning and shining Light Joh. 5.35 Burn to God by a true and unfeigned Love of him Shine to Men by the clear Truths which he delivers He must feel within himself those Motions which he endeavors to communicate to his Reader Si vīs me flere dolendum est primum ipsi tibi A Soul possessed with Hope with Fear with Joy with Grief with Love with Hatred in fine with any Passion doth express not only the Thoughts but the Passion it self with Tropes proper by which means it not only informs the Understanding but also stirs the Will of the Hearer or Reader to like Inclinations Read Seneca's Epistles or other Moral Works or Cicero's you shall find a great many excellent Truths yet I never knew any Man the better in his Morality for them As they themselves notwithstanding those Lights were far from being Good Men as you may see in Lactantius lib. 3. Divin Instit from Chap. 13. On the contrary the reading of Saints Works hath a great force to move us to Good. S. Austin l. 8. Confess c. 6. says some were Converted by reading the Life of S. Antony Several have taken serious Resolutions of leading a Christian Life by reading those Confessions And I have known several moved to love Mental Prayer by reading S. Teresa's Works and to the Love of God by using those of S. Francis de Sales This is a great defect in all our Protestant Writers I will instance in two who seem each in his kind to overtop his Confreres quantum lenta solent inter viburna Cupressi The one Bishop Andrews who by Divisions and Subdivisions instructs well only sometimes verborum minutiis rerum pondera frangit The other is the Author of The whole Duty of Man who hath many excellent Truths and very practical as well as the first yet seem not to move the Will because of their cold way of treating their Doctrins They shine but they do not Burn. This Heat is not to be attained unto but by Prayer Which enflames our Heart with the Love of God In meditatione meâ exardescet ignis Psal 38.4 It is this Love which unites us to God and this Union makes us capable of doing great things For an Instrument must be in the Hand of the Workman to do compleatly what is intended if it be distant from him and not held but by a small Thred the Work will be difficult and imperfect if there can be any We are all the Instruments of God in order to all good Works especially in writing Spiritual Books in which if there be any thing good it must come from God the Fountain of all Good. The Apostles after the Ascension expecting the coming of the Holy Ghost Act. 1.14 continued with one accord in Prayer S. John Baptist althô sanctified in his Mothers Womb and designed for the Office of Praecursor and by consequence fitted from above for that Office yet he was in the Desert till the days of his shewing unto Israel Luc. 1.80 sequestring himself from the company of Men and conversing only with God and his Angels the far greatest part of his Life And the Word Incarnate not for any need of his own but to give us Example passed Forty days in Fasting and Prayer in a Desert before he began to Preach Mat. 4.2 And when he had begun he passed the Days with Men and the Nights in Prayer with his Heavenly Father Luc. 6.12 Erat pernoctans in oratione Dei. Species tibi datur forma tibi praescribitur quam debeas amulari says S. Ambr. l. 6. in Luc. This was the Practice of S. Greg. Naz. S. Basil S. Chrysostom And in later Times Ignatius de Loyola before he began the Society past a Retreat in a Cave at Manresa God alone is in peculiar manner the Father of Lights all is darkness but what is received from him The greatest Spiritualists that ever held a Pen even the Writers of Scripture at the same time they taught us received their Lesson from the Holy Ghost And first the Ears of their Heart were open to hear what God spoke to them Psal 84.9 Then they opened their Mouth to speak out of the abundance of their Heart to us Mat. 12.34 Now what Years what Months what Weeks or at least Days do you of the Ministry pass in Solitude in Prayer I find little footsteps of it in any
to Star-Worship Primum omnium Stellas admirationi fuisse propter pulchritudinem venerationi propter utilitatem Hinc Sap. XIII primo refertur refutatur Astrorum Adoratio deinde Idolorum Althô it be hard to foresee when these contentious Disputes will end Passion and Interest fighting against Truth yet I do not despair that some alive may be so happy as to see it For many Objections against us are grounded on Mistakes others are not against Faith which alone we are bound to defend but Discipline Such is the Free use of Scripture in the Vulgar Language prohibited by the Council of Trent says Dr. E. S. in his Council of Trent Examin'd and Disprov'd by Catholic Tradition And then in a long elaborate Discourse with many Examples of ancient Translations of the Scripture he endeavors to prove there is no Catholic Tradition for that Prohibition Against whom is this I acknowledge I am to seek For 1. We pretend Catholic Tradition for Points of Faith not for each Point of Discipline of which this is one 2. This Point is not universally received in the Church as may be seen pag. 26. of this Edition 3. I find no such Prohibition in the Council of Trent This Council did order Sess 18. an Index to be made of Suspected or Pernicious Books by a Committee of some of the Fathers who Sess 25. reported what Progress was made in it But the Council left the Consideration of what was by them done to the Pope without any other Decree and immediately determined Whence I gather 1. The Scripture in no Vulgar Language was consider'd in that Congregation or Committee it never having been looked on either as Pernicious or Suspected by the Catholic Church or any General Council 2. Scripture in a Vulgar Language was not prohibited by the Council for the Council left all that Matter to the Pope's Determination 3. The Index finished in Rome was never proposed to the Council an end being put to it immediately after that Reference of the Index to the Pope so the Index is no Act of the Council By which it appears that the Learned Doctor in all that Discourse disputes against no Catholic Doctrin nor against the Council of Trent Now this framing Phantôms and then combating them may amuse the People for a time but it will soon be insignificant and therefore laid aside It is time we hearken to Dr. Burnet's Lamentation which if it be real it is a work of Charity to comfort him CHAP. I. G. B. His Design and Disposition when he writ this Book Of the Wickedness of the World. MR G. B. Pag. 1. He that increaseth Knowlege increaseth Sorrow is an observation which holdeth true of no part of Knowledge so much as of the Knowlege of Mankind it is some relief to him who knows nothing of foreign Wickedness to hope there are other Nations wherein Vertue is honored and Religion is in esteem which allays his regrets when he sees Vice and Impiety abound in his Country but if by travelling or reading he enlarge his Horizon and know Mankind better his regrets will grow when he finds the whole World lies in Wickedness Answer We need not travel or read much to know that the whole World lies in Wickedness Seeing those are the Words of the beloved Disciple 1 Jo. 5.19 This is indeed an occasion of Sorrow But in the same place the B. Apostle comforts us by saying We know that we are of God. So that the World there is understood of Vnbelievers who are in Wickedness by original and actual Sin for which they have no lawful and efficacious Expiation no Sacrament instituted by Almighty God lawfully administred But we who are in the true Church are of God unto whom we are regenerated by Baptism and if by humane frailty we die to God falling into any grievous Sin we have the holy Sacrament of Penance to raise us again to the Life of Grace Yet it is not the Apostles meaning that in the true Members of the Catholic Church there is nothing reprehensible or that in those who are not in it there is nothing Good. In Heaven there is nothing but Vertue those Blessed Souls having their will so united to that of God that they cannot offend him In Hell there is nothing but Sin the Wills of those wretched Spirits being so obstinate in the Love of themselves that they cannot do any thing which should please God. This present Life is a mean betwixt those Extreams and in it there is a mixture of Perfections atd Imperfections of Vice and Vertue Those who are most wicked have something good and in those who are most vertuous there are some remainders of Human Frailty for their Humiliation which we ought neither to esteem nor imitate (a) 1 Kings 21.25 There was none like unto Achab which did sell himself to work Wickedness in the sight of the Lord. Yet he humbled himself and put on sackcloth and fasted S. Paul (a) Act. 9.15 The chosen vessel unto God to bear his Name before the Gentiles and Kings and the children of Israel yet (b) 2 Cor. 12.7 there was given to him a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet him And who can without Compassion read his Seventh Chapter to the Romans in which he describes the conflict he felt interiourly betwixt the Spirit and the Flesh Which he concludes with these pathetick Words O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Which renew the memory of that torment to which Mezentius the Tyrant (c) Virgilius Aeneid 8. condemn'd his innonocent Subjects And the Hetruscans (d) Aug. l. 4. contra Jul. c. ult exercised upon their Captives binding living Bodies to rotten putrified Carkases and leaving them so But the Apostle who describes his Pain relates his Ease and having explicated his Sickness acquaints us with its Remedy The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So that if the Combat affrights us by this Assistance we may be encourag'd and comforted Yet tho I grant that there is occasion enough to lament on what side soever we cast our eyes on Mankind in this State of corrupt nature if we consider how little Men use the means designed for their Improvement in Vertue and resisting their bad Inclinations Yet there is little appearance of Grief in your Book which hath more of a Satyr than of a Lamentation your Stile being rather bitingly invective than mourningly compassionate you discover more of Diogenes or of Democritus than of Heraclitus Were there no Objects of regret nearer home Doth your own Church afford you no occasion to shew your Zeal in blaming the Faults of her Children in order to get them corrected Sure it doth or the World is very much misinformed How comes it then that you neglect her Cure of whom your Character obliges you to have a Care and search the Sores of the Roman Church with which you have
Italy in Narnia Viridianus in Asculum Ancaria in Volsinia Nertia in Sutrino Nortia and others in other places came to be Gods. See Tertul. Apolog. c. 24. and Athenagoras p. 14. A third occasion was Gratitude to men from whose Industry they had received great ease in their wants by Invention or Im provement of Arts. Thus Ceres for Corn Bacchus for Wine Vulcan for the Forge amongst the Grecians and Flora amongst the Romans for the Wealth left to the Commonwealth were adored as Gods. Minutius Felix in Octavio Vnaquaeque Natio Conditorem suum aut Ducem inclitum aut Reginam pudicam sexu suo fortiorem aut alicujus muneris vel artis repertorem venerabatur ut civem bonae memoriae sic defunctis praemium futuris dabatur Exemplum I think their Conjecture very probable who guess the Aegyptian Idol the Calf or Ox to be a Symbole of Agriculture and that Apis Serapis and Osiris three Names of one Person Were Adored under that Resemblance for having invented it whether that person was Joseph as E. S. pretends pag. 363. or the Son of Jupiter and Niobe Daughter to Phoroneus is not worth the disputing Probably Anubis got his Apotheosis by his faithful Service done to the Public in quality of Captain of their Guards to Osiris and Isis and his dogs-face was a Symbole of his Vigilancy If you doubt of either of these occasions or both Read Lactantius l. 1. c. 15. Philastrius l. de haeres c. 27. Isidorus Hispal lib. 8. Orig. c. 11. Arnobius Min. Felix above cited and Cicero de Natura Deor. and that Benefactors were Deified began from and by command of Seruch one of the Descendants of Japhat as you may see in Suidas Epiphanius Epistolâ ad Acatium Paulum Constantinus Manasses in his short Chronicle Two things concurred to dispose men to this most abominable Sin their Ingratitude to God within and the compleat Workmanship of the Statue without them Their Ingratitude to God deserved that he should withdraw his Grace and leave them to themselves whence their foolish heart was darkned (a) Rom. 1.21 The Diligence (b) Sap. 14.28 of the Artificer did help to set forward the Ignorant to more Superstition which was the exterior Cause for he willing to please one in Authority forced all his skill to make the resemblance the better And so the multitude allured by the grace of the Work took him now for a God which a little before was honorred but as a man. (c) Aug. in Psal 112. Illa causa est maxima impietatis insanae quod plus valet in affectibus miserorum similis viventi forma quae sibi efficit supplicari quam quod eam manifestum est non esse viventem ut debeat à vivente contemni Plus enim valent ad curvandam infoelicem animam quod os habent oculos habent aures habent quà m ad corrigendam quod non loquentur non videbunt non audient Illa causa The greatest cause of this mad senseless Impiety is that the likeness of a living man works more strongly upon the Affections of those Wretches than an evident Conviction that being dead they should be despised by the living For the Shape of Eyes Ears Mouth Nose Hands and Feet are more praevalent to bend down before them a miserable Soul than their not speaking hearing seeing smelling touching or walking is to correct the Error Says S. Austin Probably this may be the Reason wherefore altho by Gods command Statues (a) Exod. 25.18 of Cherubins were made to be placed with the Ark in the Sanctuary where none but Priests came yet in the Courts of the Temple either those of the Jews or Gentiles there were none To leave nothing in the sight of that stiff-neckt rebellious adulterous People which might be A stumbling block to their Souls and a snare to their Feet And such would those Statues have been to the Jews as they had been to the Gentiles The Protestants cannot blame the Catholic Church for having Statues and exposing them to the People openly without blaming their own Church in which Statues are in like manner made and exposed as I have heard of several of their Cathedrals namely that of Canterbury where upon the Font are those of Christ and his twelve Apostles We think our People secured from the danger of Idolatry First by being taught that the Statues are only Representations of Saints and not Saints themselves much less Gods. Secondly because that religious Respect which we give to Images doth by them end ultimatè in God For why do we respect the Image or Statue For the Saint it represents And why do we reverence the Saint Merely because he was the Temple of God and Instrument of the Holy Ghost So that all our Worship of Images ends in God and his Christ with the Holy Ghost one God blessed for evermore Thus we instructing the People stop their Inclinations to the evil Idolatry and by owning all we have and all the Saint had that is good from God we hope we need not fear that dreadful Blindness and Folly into which the Men wise according to this World were permitted to humble and confound them to fall through a penal but a very just Judgment of God. The last occasion of this Idolatry was the Devil insinuating himself into the Statues and in a manner dwelling in them answering to Questions proposed to them causing Sicknesses and healing them telling things which happen'd at a Distance and pretending to foretell things to come altho in this unless they were very cautious in delivering their Oracles in obscure terms their Ignorance in future things was easily discovered Of this see S. Austin (a) Aug. l. 8. de Civit. c. 23. Justinus (b) Justin Mar. dialog cum Triphone Origines (c) Origenes l. 1. contra Celsum Minutius Felix (d) Minutius Felix in Octavio Prudent (e) Prudent in Apotheosi and Cyprian (f) Cypr. l. ad Demetrianum Arnobius Lactantius c. I end with the convincing Testimony of Athenagoras p. 29. The things said he which gave names to Idols were men those which take names of them are Divels For this Reason Tertul l. de Testim animae propè finem said Thou O Soul didst abhor Divels and yet thou didst Adore them I must not omit another kind of Idolatry of those who adored as God several Creatures either for their Beauty or the Benefit they received by them such as are the Fire and some Elements of the Earth or the Sun Moon or Stars Vain (g) Sap. 13.1 are all men by nature who are ignorant of God and could not out of the good things seen know him that is neither by considering his works did acknowledge the workmaster but deemed either fire or the circle of the stars or the lights of Heaven to be Gods which govern the World with whose beauty if they being delighted took them to be
a faithful Witness gives hitherto and will give to the end of the World Testimony to that Revelation And we cannot be Hereticks because (b) Tertul. supra Nobis nihil ex arbitrio nostro inducere licet sed nec eligere quod aliquis ex arbitrio suo induxerit we never take the liberty to choose our selves or to admit what others choose but we take bona fide what is delivered as revealed by the greatest Authority imaginable on Earth which is that of the Catholic Church Let an Angel teach us any thing contrary to what is delivered and we will pronounce Anathema to him in imitation of the Apostle Gal. 1.18 Here is then the Tenure of our Faith. The Father sent his only begotten Son consubstantial to himself into the World And what he heard of his Father that he made known to us Joan. 15.15 The Father and Son sent the Holy Ghost And he did not speak of himself but what he heard that he spoke Joan. 16.13 The Holy Ghost sent the Apostles And they declared unto us what they had seen and heard 1 Joan. 1.3 The Apostles sent the Highest and lower Prelates in the Church and the Rule by which they framed their Decrees was Let nothing be altered in the Depositum let no Innovation be admitted in what is delivered Quod traditum est non innovetur Steph. PP apud Cypr. Epist 74. ad Pompeium By this we are assured that our Faith is that which the Councils received from the Apostles the Apostles from the Holy Ghost and so by the Son to God the Father where it rests Now to Protestants Their Proceeding is far different they hear the whole System of Faith commended by the Church as revealed by God and take it into Examination And some things displeasing them in it they fall to reforming it and cut off at one Blow all things not expressy contained in Scripture Here is one Choice Then Scripture is called to the Bar and near a third part of it condemned and lopt off which is a second Choice Thirdly there being still several things in the remnant which displease them as understood by the Church they reject that Interpretation and fix on it such a one as pleases them most So that even what Sense they retain they do it upon this their Haeresis or Choice What Evidence can convince a Man to be a Chooser in Faith that is a Heretic if these Men be not by this Proceeding sufficiently proved such For a farther confirmation of this consider the several ways of Catholics and Protestants in entertaining Propositions of Faith. A Catholic hearing from the Church our Saviour's Words with the Sense that is the compleat Scripture for the bare Word without the Sense is no more Scripture than a Body without a Soul or Life is a Man presently believes them and what Reason soever may appear to the contrary he silences it and submits his Vnderstanding to Faith and let the Words seem harsh and the Sense unconceivable yet the Truth of God triumphs over all those petty Oppositions A Protestant hears the same and presently consults his Reason and till he hath its Verdict suspends his Judgment If that say with the Pharisce Joh. 3.9 How can these things be or with the Capharnaits Joh. 4. This is a hard saying who can hear it the Protestant immediately renounces it So we submit our Reason to Faith you set yours above it We frame our Reason according to the Dictamens of Revelation you shape Revelation by your Reason In fine you set your Reason on a Throne to Judge of that Word by which one day you are to be Judged You may as easily prove the Pharisees and Capharnaits to be better Christians than the Apostles as that your Procedure in receiving Faith is better than that of the Catholic Church SECTION II. Of Hope HOPE is an expectation of future Bliss promised by our Blessed Saviour to those who love him and keep his Commandments It is built on a Promise of God which cannot fail And had that Promise been absolute we might have been more assuredly certain of our future Happiness than we can be of the truth of any Mathematical Demonstration but it is only Conditional requiring on our parts a concurrence with his Divine Grace and this is always uncertain by reason of the mutability of our Will to Evil notwithstanding our strongest Resolutions to Good. Hence our Hope is mixt with Fear Sperando timemus Tertul. l. de cultu faeminarum c. 2. p. 265. We have a full assurance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on God's side Who to shew unto the Heirs of promise the immatability of his Counsel confirmed it by an Oath that by two things immutable in which it was impossible for God to lie we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the Hope set before us which Hope we have as an Anchor of the Souls both sure and stedfast Heb. 6.17 18 19. On our side we have always reason to apprehend the mutability of our own Will notwithstanding all present Grace from God and the strength of his Counsel Hence the Apostle admonishes us 2 Cor. 6.1 not to receive in vain the Grace of God. He sets before our Eyes his own Example 1 Cor. 9.27 keeping under his Body chastising it and bringing it into subjection lest having preached to others he might become himself a reprobate a cast-away And consequently warns us Phil. 2.12 to work out our salvation with fear and trembling When this Apostle fears who can presume We may resolve well pray hard and act well to day but what assurance have we that to morrow will find us so well disposed or even not doing the quite contrary and that being so ill prepared Death will not surprize us S. Paul the Vessel of Election who had been taken up to the Third Heaven feared lest he should become a reprobate and S. Peter bred up in our Blessed Saviour's School resolved to die with him yet shortly after denied him If these great Pillars of the Church shake and bend and fear breaking or actually break what may not such Reeds as G. B. and I. W. fear You see what Grounds we have to fear from Reason from the Example of the Apostles and from their Doctrin This is comfortless Doctrin to G. B. p. 54. and therefore he had rather throw all on Christ and persuade himself that Christ's Prayer was sufficient his Satisfaction sufficient his Merits sufficient We need neither Pray nor Suffer nor Merit Believe in him and he will do all Crede firmiter pecca fortiter Compare now this Disposition of modern Catholics which is the same with that of the Apostles with that of a Protestant their Fear with his Confidence their Trembling with his Assurance their Apprehensions with his Boldness and you shall find in Catholics true Hope mingled with Fear as you may see in Divines and I have shewed out of the Apostles and
ravenous wolves and gives us a sign to know them by their works Catholics considered the Works of the first Reformers and by them judged of their Persons whether they were Sheep or Wolves Imprimis They had a great Motive to suspect the whole Reformation because the occasion of it was evidently reproachful In Germany Luther's Motive was Emulation betwixt his Order and the Dominicans and Envy that these later should have the Preaching of the Jubilee In England Lust began it under Henry VIII and Avarice and Pride compleated it under Edward VI. By whom was it most hotly embraced and promoted By Apostates in whom the Flesh prevailed over the Spirit and the first Step they made was shaking off the Yoke of Obedience to their lawful Superiors to become Independant This is one Sacrilege which was accompanied with two others breaking their Vows of Chastity and Poverty What Motives did they use to draw People to joyn with them Propose Liberty from all Ecclesiastical Laws that were any way burdensom or contrary to Sensuality as Fasting Praying on certain Days Penances c. freeing Men from the Obligation of Divine Laws by teaching they were impossible and rejecting some of them in particular as that for Confession Indulging Sensualities trampling on all that seemed burthensome under pretence of Christian Liberty What Effects followed the Reformation A neglect of God's Counsels an insensibility of his Inspirations a contempt of Religion an unwillingness to be Ruled Rebellion in Church and State a losing of the Spirit of Prayer a slighting of all good Works and an entire abandoning themselves to bad ones The Light of the Gospel promised and that darkned with irreligious Interpretations The Word of God held forth and a great part of it cut off A Reformation pretended in the Church and the Church robbed of its Revenues The Church-Worship purged and the chief Action of it Sacrifice abolished The Glory of God promised and his Sacred Name by Blasphemy prophaned Faith so commended as by it Hope was destroyed by Presumption and Charity by Schism In fine if any thing like Zeal appeared in the first Times of Reformation it shewed it self by Avarice Rapine Sacrilege Pride Dissensions Schisms Rebellions Incontinences Drunkenness in a word Libertinism Which the sincerer part of your Communion deplore with true Tears not with such as you shed for our Errors If these are works of sheep what are the works of wolves And if by works we must judge of men what could they say of these Reformers Let us lay aside what is past and look on what is present Is it not true that thô you talk much of Christianity yet all Marks of it seem blotted out of the Lives of your Flock That there never was more Impurity in Marriages more Corruption in Families more Debauchery in Youth more Ambition amongst the Rich more Pride amongst the Gentry more Dishonesty in Commerce more Sophistication in Merchandises more Deceit amongst Tradesmen more Intemperance amongst all That Fornication is thought a Peccadillo Adultery good Fortune Chastity a Reproach to the Sex Cheating and Treachery Court Vertue Impiety and Libertinism Strength of Wit Oaths and Blasphemies Ornaments of our Language Perpetual Gaming a lawful Divertisement for Men Contempt of their Husbands Neglect of the Education of their Children and of the Care of their Families a Privilege of Women who have some advantage of Birth and Fortune And Drunkenness for all who have Time and Mony to cast away The prodigious numbers of Houses designed for Tipling is a sufficient convicton of the greatness of this Vice there be more in London alone than in any ten Catholic Towns in Europe and probably more than served the whole Kingdom in Catholic Times which are so many Nurseries of Idleness whence all Vices flow and the thriving Condition they all live in shews which way the Riches of the Nation go and on what their Hearts are setled You will say these are Faults of the Reformers but not of the Reformation But in this you are mistaken for it comes from the very substantial Parts of your Reformation so that if any do well it is to be attributed to the goodness of their Nature if ill it is to be charged upon your Religion which hath retrenched on several Pretences almost all Helps of Devotion Christ to apply to us the Merits of his Passion instituted seven Sacraments which are Administred in the Catholic Church To regenerate us Baptism To strengthen us in Faith Confirmation To nourish our Souls Eucharist To restore us to God's Grace if by frailty we have lost it Penance To prepare us for a Passage to the other World Extreme Vnction To confer Grace necessary for a Churchman or a Married Man Order and Matrimony Of those you have cut off five and of the two remaining that of the Eucharist which Christ said was his Body and Blood you make only a bit of Bread and a Spoon-ful of Wine The Catholics have every day the unbloody Sacrifice of the Altar offered at which they can assist they are taught that Mass is composed out of the Law and Prophets the Gospel and Canonical Epistles That it is a Summary of the Life of Christ and Commemoration of his Death That when they see the Sacred Host elevated they must call to mind his Elevation on the Cross for their sakes and that they must offer him and themselves with him to God the Father as S. Austin teaches us lib. 10. de Civit. Dei cap. 20. This daily Sacrifice you have cut off having something in Cathedrals on Sundays in other Churches seldom So the whole Week in all Places and a great part of the Year in most Places passes with out that great Exercise for your Devotion Ceremonies in Divine Service are necessary to fix our Fancy on the things in hand and to help to raise our Soul to God. This they do first by their Signification as knocking our Breast is a sign of Grief and Contrition Kneeling and Bowing of our Adoration of God Lifting up our Hands and Eyes to Heaven of raising our Wills to God c. They likewise increase within us those Dispositions they signifie by a sympathy betwixt the Soul and Body These you have retrenched as Superstitious which hath opened a Door to the Contempt of your Holy Service and Places where it is celebrated to which many of you shew little more Respect than at other Civil Actions nay many would not enter into a Friend's House with so little Respect as they shew entring into the House of God. G. B. pag. 135. Religion consists in few things Ans T is true nay it consists in one thing as to its perfection The Love of God above all things But what then Are helps to stir up that Love of God to be neglected It is Pharisaical to place our Confidence in the Ceremonies or consider them as the Substance of Religion but to look on them as its Ornaments and Means to stir up and