Tria ergo cùm hîc se offerant sacrificia; propitiatorium certè, nisi fortè (ut Glossa interpretatur) repræsentativè, nullum est: nullum essentiale; nullum (quod Tridentini contendunt) verum ac proprium. Immo, nec esse potest. Quid enim? Idemne offert sacerdos, quod Christus obtulit? an aliud? Si aliud, non ergo propitiatorium; solus enim Christus xao μος. Sin idem, tum non ȧvaíμakтos; cruentum enim erat Christi sacrificium: tum esse Christi naturale denuò destrueretur: tum finiti valoris foret (animus horret cogitare) sanguis Mediatoris. Immo, Christus ipse non in mensâ sacrificavit, sed in cruce: etenim si perfectum in cœnâ suâ sacrificium obtulit, plenèque propitiatorium, quid opus illi erat mori postmodùm? quorsum illi in cruce effusus cruor, qui, transubstantiato illo necdum emisso sanguine, mundum priùs redemisset? Quod si incruentum, tum non propitiatorium: nulla enim, inquit Apostolus, xópis aiμaтexxvolas remissio; Heb. ix. 22. Aut quæ demum oppositio est inter Melchisedechi ordinem et Aaronis, Christum et veteris Legis Sacerdotes, si munus istud per longam mortalium successorum seriem transeat æquè, ac descendat? Aut quorsum iterata sunt toties legalia veterum sacrificia, nisi quòd parum perfecta extiterint? quî verò potest, aut quorsum debet, quod perfectissimum est, iterari? Denique, quid planius vel dici vel cogitari potest? аπаž πроσενεχθείς, μία θυσία, μία προσφόρα; Heb. ix. 28: x. 12, 14. Et tamen adhuc sacrificuli Pontificii, sacerrimi homines, Christum crucifigunt immolantque; dumque Filium Dei Patri suo piè offerunt, rogant supplices, religiosâ planè blasphemiâ, ut hostiam illam benedicere et acceptam habere velit. Nobis non licet esse tam devotis. Commemorabimus nos quidem sanctissimum Christi sacrificium, quod Cassander benè monuit; gratoque animo recolemus: non iterabimus. Accipiemus oblatum à se Patri, oblatumque nobis à Patre Servatorem: non Patri offeremus. Quod unum dum (uti par est) recusamus, anathemate Tridentino statim percellimur. Pax ergo hîc nulla. (b.) Ad sacerdotium Christi non magis spectat, ipsum se ceptibilem, facere digneris, &c. Munera, quæsumus, Domine, oblata sanctifica, &c. Supra que propitio ac sereno vultu respicere digneris, et accepta habere, &c. Canon, Miss. Consult de Sacrif, he offered himself once for us, a spotless sacrifice, upon the altar of his cross; than that he daily offers to his Father the incense of our prayers, on the altar of heaven. As, therefore, many sacrifices, so many Mediators plainly seem to put Christ out of office. Neither indeed hath the number of intercessors more increased in this old age of the world, than the impiety of implor ing them. For the modester judgment of the former Schools so framed to itself a distinction of mediation, that it challenged one kind thereof as proper only to Christ, thinking the other might be imparted to saints: but our late Doctors, wilfully breaking the bars both of logic and divinity, have rashly encroached upon all the offices of a Mediator; and, whatsoever might by any right belong to an agent for peace, all that, if not more, have they attributed to the saints. Hereupon, one says to the Blessed Virgin, "O Saviouress, save me:" another, "Obtain thou pardon, apply grace, prepare glory for me:" others, if we may believe Cassander, famous Divines, have said, that "God hath translated one half of his kingdom, which consists of mercy, to the Blessed Virgin Mary; reserving the other half, of justice, to himself:" others, that "we may appeal from the bar of God's justice, to Mary's court of mercy." Others have so compared their Francis with Christ, that, I tremble to speak it, whether of these was the typical Jesus, might seem questionable to the reader. Hear the holy muse of Turselline: Francis that was, shall now be Christ to thee: And, soon after, And Christ that was, Saint Francis now shall be. O tongue, worthy to be cut out of that blasphemous mouth, as Jerome said of his Vigilantius, and made into gobbets! Neither hath this impious parasite, or his Sedulius done more for their stigmatical Francis, than the holy Archbishop Antonius hath done for his Dominick, in an emulation of blasphemy. There wants nothing, that I can see, but "that Everlasting Gospel of the Friars :" and it wanted not much, if histories say true, of prevailing: Oh, what mad gowns have swayed the Roman state! as their poet said of old. Others have sacrilegiously turned Litanies, Creeds, Psalters, and whatever God meant to honour himself by, unto the name of the Holy Virgin. And, I would to God, this were only the private misdevotion of some superstitious old wife, or some idle Lib. Conform. Sedul. a Tursell. cit. à Possevin. Bibliothec. Select. p. 295. Hier. advers. Vigilant. (Epist. 53. p. 158.) victimam ǎμЄμπTOV in arâ crucis pro nobis semel immolare; quàm precum nostrarum thymiama, (ooμnv evádias,) in arâ cœli, Patri suo jugiter offerre. Ut ergo infinita ferè sacrificia, sic et innumeri Mediatores Christum planè exautorare nobis videri solent. Neque certè magis in hoc mundi senio crevit intercessorum numerus, quàm impietas invocandi. Enimvero modestius Scholæ prioris acumen ita finxit sibi mediationis distinctionem, ut alteram ejus speciem Christo propriam vindicârit, alteram sanctis participandam censuerit: succedanei autem Doctores, ruptis non tam Logicarum, quàm Theologicarum legum repagulis, in omnia Mediatoris officia temerè involârunt; et quicquid cuiquam sequestri quovis jure competere potuit, totum illud sanctis suis tribuerunt. Hinc alius Beatissimæ Virgini, "O Servatrix, salva me:" alius, 'Impetra veniam, applica gratiam, præpara gloriam :" alii, si Cassandro credimus, celebres viri, dixerunt, "Deum regni sui, quod constat ex justitiâ et misericordiâ, dimidium (hoc est, misericordiæ) in B. Mariam transtulisse:" alii, "exhinc à foro justitiæ Dei posse ad curiam B. Mariæ provocari." Alii sic Franciscum cum Christo comparârunt, ut uter horum, horreo dicere, Jesus typicus fuerit, planè dubium lectori videatur. Ecce ἐνθουσιασμον Tursellini: Qui Franciscus erat, jam tibi Christus erit. Et statim, Jam Franciscus erit, qui modo Christus erata. O! præcidendam linguam, quod Vigilantio Hieronymus, et per partes ac frusta dilacerandam ! Idemque Dominico præstitit (pari blasphemiâ) pius Archiepiscopus Antoninus. Nihil hîc, quantum video, defit, præter "æternum illud Fraterculorum Evangelium:" parùm verò abfuit, si credimus historiis, quin obtinuisset: O, quàm perfatuæ sunt tibi, Roma, togad! Alii Litanias, Psalteria, et quicquid ad Dei gloriam Spiritus accommodavit, ad Sanctæ Virginis nomen ore sacrilego traduxerunt. Et utinam profectò ista privata foret superstitiosuli alicujus malèque feriati homuncionis detoidapovía. Lubenter Henr. Steph. Apolog. Herodot. (p. 517. ed. 1579.) et Fox in Martyr. (v. ii. p. 520. edit. 1837.) d Martial. and silly cloisterer. Fain would our charity conceive so, which is still credulous, and, as the Apostle commands, thinks not evil; 1 Cor. xiii. 5. if Cassander did not directly tell us, that they publicly sing in their very churches this devout Anthem, O happy Mother of that Son, Which hast all our sins foredone : Out of a Mother's right, we pray thee, Bid our Redeemer to obey thee: if all these were not openly approved by the holy censors of the Roman Church, severe controllers of manners! yea, by the voices of their own Popes: if, at this day, (witness the muses of Bencius and Bonarcius,) the Jesuits did not both speak and write thus. But, let us leave these bold impieties, if you will, to their Bernardines, Antonines, Bartholemews of Pisa, Tursellines. Bring us forth their more sober Divines, Polydores, Cassanders Vives: even their opinions will not down with us, which teach that the saints are, in any wise, to be prayed unto. Indeed, the Protestants say, as, Bellarmin grants, that the saints pray for us; but, only in a generality. Bucer said truly, that the saints have great love to their militant brethren, great desire of their salvation; and so, doubtless, have the angels. But, must we therefore single out any one of those blessed spirits to aid us, to sue for us in the court of heaven? God forbid for, upon what faith must these prayers of ours be grounded? unless perhaps, as Hosius saith, we must believe in the saints also. Yea, how sure are we, that none of the saints can either search the heart, the fountain of our prayers; or, at once hear ten thousand of their suppliants, distant in place from each other! Yea, further, if, as there should be no limits set to religion, all the world over, devout clients should, at once, jointly commend and prostrate themselves humbly to some one saint; it is not a swiftness of nature, as Jerome contends, that would serve the turn: a true ubiquity, as Bellarmin confesses, must be required to the hearing of all those prayers. What hinders now, but that they, which, of sinful men, have made saints; should, of their saints, make gods also? Besides, which of the Prophets, which of the Apostles ever commanded this? which of the Saints of the former world hath ever done it? Or, what other, if credit may be given to Theodorit, did St. Paul forbid, under the worship of angels, to his Colossians? Or, what was the heresy of the Collyridians, if this must go for piety? e Lib. de Beatit. Sanct. c. 15. Cit. Cass. in Consult. de Invocat. Sanct. (p. 968.) Idem fatentur Luther. Ecol. Melancth. Brentius.-Quære Mort. Äppell. Protest. 1. 2. c. 12. s. 1. quidem fovere vellet opinionem hanc charitas nostra, credula illa certè, et quæ, Apostoli jussu, où λoyiteraι Tò KaKÒV: 1 Cor. xiii. 5. ni etiam in Ecclesiis quibusdam publicè decantari moneat Cassander, istud (bone Deus) quale carmen! O fælix puerpera, ni hæc omnia a piissimis Ecclesiæ Romanæ censoribus, rigidis morum magistris! ipsorumque Pontificum suffragiis, palàm comprobata essent: nisi eadem hodie (testor Bencii et Bonarscii musas) et dicerent et scriberent Jesuitæ. Sed relegentur tamen ista (si quis mavelit) ad suos Bernardinos, Antoninos, Bartolomæos Pisanos, Tursellinos. Prodeant qui magis sobriè sapere visi sunt, Polidori, Cassandri, Ludovici; ne horum quidem sententia nobis unquam arridebit, qui quovis modo sanctos invocandos esse docuerint. Verè (quod Bellarminus) Protestantes dicunt, sanctos pro nobis orare; sed tantùm in genere. Verè Bucerus, inesse sanctis summam nostri charitatem, nostræque salutis voluntatem: quin eadem proculdubio et angelis eudóκia est. Hinc tamen ut nos quemlibet beatorum spirituum, ad auxilium nostrî, ad intercessionis cœlicæ munus evocemus? Absit! Etenim quâ demum fide nitentur hæ preculæ? nisi fortè, quod Hosius, credere et in sanctos debeamus? Quàm nobis certò constat, neminem posse sanctorum, vel fontem orationum corda lustrare, vel mille supplicum vota, locis à se totidem dissitorum, unà inaudire! Quin, uti nulli mihi videntur poni debere religioni termini, ubique (si placet) terrarum, uni alicui sanctorum devoti clientes se unanimiter commendent, prosternantque; non celeritas naturæ, ut Hieronymus, sed vera ubiquitas, ut fatetur Bellarminus", istîc, ad preces hasce percipiendas, requireretur. Quid nunc obstat, quò minùs qui sanctorum animas in divos, divorum spiritus in Deos aliquando transmutent? Deinde verò, quis Prophetarum, quis Apostolorum jussit? quis fecit sanctorum prisci ævi? Aut quid denique aliud, si qua Theodoreto fides, sub θρησκειᾷ τῶν ἀγγελῶν Colossensibus suis interdixit Paulus? Aut quæ Collyridianorum hæresis fuit, si hæc pietas habenda sit? Contr. Vigil. 1. i. Bell. de Beat. Sanc. 1. 1. c. 20. |