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A64936 Sure and honest means for the conversion of all hereticks and wholesome advice and expedients for the reformation of the church / writ by one of the communion of the Church of Rome and translated from the French, printed at Colgn, 1682 ; with a preface by a divine of the Church of England. Vigne.; Wake, William, 1657-1737. 1688 (1688) Wing V379 124,886 138

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to People that are condemned Nec quisquam dicat se injustè hâc ratione condemnari nec conqueratur do judicibus Ecclesiasticis vel de judicio Ecclesiae ita statuentis Nor let any Man say that he is condemned unjustly upon this account nor complain of the Ecclesiastical Judges or of the Church so ordaining These Hangmen will make the Church accessary to their Barbarities Sed si injustè condemnatus sit gaudeat potiùs quòd pro veritate mortem patiatur but if he be unjustly condemned let him rejoyce rather that he suffers Death for the Truth What could the Devil do worse if he were incarnate Yet this is the Churches Head the Vicar of Jesus Christ the Holy See the Apostolick See it is his Holiness who hath made and decreed these things They do yet worse than this to Kings and Princes for they make use of secret means for fear they should get notice of them and by their Power prevent their wicked Designs They employ ignorant Creatures that are loaden with Iniquity such as Ravilliac who was a Murtherer by Profession and a Sorcerer too as was commonly said they give these People Absolution from all their Crimes and promise them Paradise if they perish in the Execution or if they are taken after it They have for such purposes as these in Italy those whom they call Crocesegnati and in Spain los Familiares See in the Book of Francis Suarez the Spaniard called Defensio fidei Catholicae By the way we are very much obliged to this Loyal Loyolist for calling these Maxims the Catholick Faith. If what he said were true it would be no great advantage to be a Catholick It would be perfect Manicheisme a Man must believe two contrary Principles good and bad God and the Devil at the same time There is a certain Author called Guliel Nubrigensis who relates the Story of a Monk who dethroned his natural Prince and sat himself in his place he had engraved upon his Seal Ferus ut Leo mitis ut Agnus This Monk was Villain enough thus to usurp the Authority of his Prince but he was a thousand times better than any of these Thieves at Rome For my part I will all my Life-time hold Communion with the Catholick Gallican Church but for the Bull de Coenâ Domini the Inquisition the Superiority of the Pope above the Council and the Morals now in fashion I declare I do detest it as a thing dangerous to Salvation to hold Communion with them who believe and maintain these things and that I believe them as far from being saved as the Mahometans Who can believe that Jesus Christ who gave himself for the Salvation of us all and who is all Charity it self can approve of it that People should be put to death for Religion or that he does not detest the Barbarities which these Monsters exercise under the Name of Vicars of Jesus Christ How contrary are these Practices to those of Jesus Christ and of his Apostles See after what manner our merciful Saviour spoke to his Apostles who would have forsaken him What and will you also leave me upon which St. Chrysostom makes this Reflection * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He asks them saying Will ye also go away which was the voice of one taking away all force and compulsion And in truth they did all abandon him yet after his Resurrection he received them as kindly as tho they had followed him to the very Cross and we see that when he gave his Apostles the Power of the Keys he ordered them only to teach Men and not to compel them by force and on that occasion when the Apostles were discontented with the Samaritans and would have called down Fire from Heaven upon them he says to them Ye know not what Spirit ye are of the Son of Man is not come to destroy Mens Lives but to save them But the Popes who make a quite contrary use of this Power are come to destroy both Souls and Bodies too We see that the Apostle St. Paul followed these holy Rules of Charity when he wrote to Titus teaching him the Duty of a Bishop he says to him only A Man that is an Heretick after the first and second Admonition reject He says not do him Injustice kill him ruin him by Violence or by Craft break your word with him according to the Maxims and Practices of the Court of Rome According to these Principles St. Chrysostom says these words Apud nos non cogendo sed suadendo id agendum est ut qui malus est melior evadat neque enim ad coercendos peccatores Potestatis jus nobis datum est si datum maximè esset locus non esset juris istius exercendi cum Deus coronet non eos qui necessitate sed qui voluntate liberâ à malo abstinent We must not endeavour to make a bad Man better by Force but by Perswasion For we have no Authority to compel Sinners and if we had we ought not to make use of it seeing God crowns not those that abstain from Evil out of meer necessity but those that do it out of free choice And hence it comes that St. Hierom comparing a King to a Bishop says Ille nolentibus praeest hic volentibus The one rules over those that are unwilling the other over those that are willing And Gregory Bishop of Rome writing to the Bishop of Constantinople says to him Nova est inaudita ista praedicatio quae verberibus exigit fidem That is a new and unheard-of sort of Preaching that requires Faith with Blows The Fathers abhorred not only that Men should be put to death but that any Injustice should be done to them upon the account of Religion for to make this use of Religion is to betray it and it is a sure means to make Hereticks more obdurate for it is certain that they who do thus have only the Name of Christians and People readily believe that a Religion is nothing worth which they are forced to embrace by such ways as these St Athanasius speaking of the Religion of the Arrians who persecuted the Catholicks driving them out of all Employs depriving them of the means of getting their Living prohibiting them the Exercise of their Religion and doing them many other Wrongs by Violence and Fraud and by groundless Accusations even to the bringing some of them to Death says very well Atque seipsum quàm non sit Pia nec Dei cultrix manifestat and shews it self how it is neither pious nor worshipping God. The same thing may be said of the English at present St Chrysostome also says Errantis poena est doceri the Punishment of the erroneous is to be instructed The Emperour Antoninus tho a Pagan was much more a Christian than the Popes and their Inquisition when in his 9 th Book he says Si potes meliora doce si non potes memento in hoc tibi
Barbary are concerned for the preservation of the Town and Pirates of Algier because they taste of their Riches and have all a share in their Robberies The further insist for the Popes Advantage that they have built a great many fine Churches at Rome whose admirable Structure doth greatly edify Believers and is of it self capable to convert the Infidel Princes as Palavicini says Tali opere basterebbeno per render ammirabile la nostra Religione alli sguardi di tutti i Monarchi Mahometani e Gentili Such Works as these are enough to make our Religion be admired by all Mahometan and Gentile Monarchs He makes Religion to consist in these Buildings It is the same thing that they say who pretend that the fine Musick of the Churches the fine Ceremonies and the costly Ornaments are capable of converting People I am bold to say that if any Man be converted by these he is a Fool and I know that upon People of Understanding who apply themselves to solid things and grow in Spirit and Truth this hath a contrary Effect for these things do debauch the Mind and set it on wandering The enquiry is about seeking God and finding him in those places and it is not the sight of the fine Gilding or the excellent painting of an Edifice nor the hearing of a sweet Harmony but rather the lifting up of our Minds above sensible Objects and separating them as much as possibly we can from Sense and Imagination it is the fixing the Eyes of our Understanding with a Religious Attention upon that invisible Spirit upon that Sun of Justice and when we do it with that Love and Reverence that is due to it we shall never f●ll of seeing and hearing the most delightful things we there s●e lumen in lumine we there also hear that sweet Voice that says My Son thy Sins are forgiven thee But for the fine Churches of Rome the Popes in building them have built their own House and these Material Temples have ruined the Spiritual Temples of the Church Palavicini does acknowledg it The Fathers 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. Hierom this last mentions the very Rock of Tarpeius Therefore the Popes ought not to glory overmuch in their Buildings since Antichrist shall one day place himself in them I know not whether other Men are of the same Mind as I am 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 then I have in such places I find that my Devotion does insensibly divide and that Sense does 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 weakened whatever care I take to g●ther it up and unite it This hath a much more dangerous Effect upon the common People who have no Knowledg and whose Religion lies only in their Eyes and Ears they do in horrible manner fasten on these things which are only obvious to their Sense and go no higher There was much more Piety heretofore when the Churches were not so m●gni●icent which in my Opinion does more harm than good Dicite Pontifices in sacris quid facit aurum There was infinitely more Zeal in the time of Pope Zephirin who ordained that the Blood should be consecrated in a Chalice of Glass and St. Hierom does inform us that in his time Exuperus Bishop of Thoulouse did consecrate the Holy Sacrament in Calice vitreo vimineo canistro in a Chalice of Glass and a wicker Basket. Then it was as Gregory the Great says that the Bishops were of Gold but now their Chalices are of Gold they themselves are become Wood cum aurei ess●nt Sacerdotes Calices habuerunt ligneos nunc cum lignei sint Sacerdotes Calices volunt habere aureos That is to say within for witho●t they want no Gold It is only the Gold of the true Faith which they som●time● w●nt but they look upon that as a small matter Having then proved as I h●ve done that the Popes are good for nothing that they are the cause of the Churches Desolation and of the Damnation of so many Millions of Souls which daily perish as well by Heresy as by Ignor●nce and Vice the●●●●main● nothing more for me to prove but that it is the indispensible Duty of Christian Princes who are the Protectors of the Faith and to whom God hath committed the Defence of his Church to deliver this same Church from the Papacy that destroys it This is what they owe to God to the Church to their Subjects to themselves and also to Húman Society In regard of GOD we know that Princes were commanded under the Law to take care that nothing should be received against the pure Service of God and we also see that good Kings as Josias and Jehosaphat were so careful in this Point as to depose the High-priests themselves who were instituted by God which the Popes are not And now under the Gospel they are the Guardians of the two Tables of the Law as the Council of Paris says so that whether the Discipline of the Church be augmented or delayed God will call Kings to an account for it to whose care he hath entrusted it and according to this the Emperours did depose the B●shops of Rome as well as others when they neglected their Duty Leo the first Bishop of Rome does not deny it when he wrote to the Emperour in those times Debes incunctanter advertere regiam Potestatem tibi non solum ad Mundi Regimen sed maximè ad Ecclesiae praesidium esse col●atam You ought always to r●member that the Regal Power is g●ven to you not only for the Government of the World but chiefly for the Safeguard of the Church As for the Church if they are the Protectors of it as they ought to be and without doubt are if the Church be trod under foot if Ambition Luxury and Ignorance seize upon the Ecclesiastical Ministry if the Bishops neglect their Duty are incapable of teaching and look after nothing but spoiling and turning all to their own particular Profit if they will make the Church a Den of Thieves if they sell Holy Things and keep the Price to themselves shall not Princes punish such Villanies Shall they bear the Sword without being able even for the Good of the Church to make use of it against the Popes who do all these things It is in this says St. Austin that Princes are well pleasing to God in doing those things which none but Kings can do In hoc ergo serviunt Domino Reges cum ea faciunt ad serviendum illi quae non possunt facere nisi Reges According to this they did heretofore depose the Popes they made