never conquered France nor ever gave them any one overthrow in battle And when he was told by a neighbour of this his notorious falshood O quoth he my book two hundred years hence may pass for an authority as good as any that speak otherwise And so I think there may possibly be such impious men who out of their present malice may furnish out a lie to insect posterity in after times But he must be an unconscionable wicked man who can do such a deed § 12. Primitive Christians never used any Images as the learned of the Church of Rome acknowledge He had done well to let us know who are these learned of the Church of Rome But he will not do us that favour And we must still take his word for the judgment of the learned sort always Nay we must believe too that he is ever on the learned sorts side It is indeed unlikely that figures of those holy Persons who first spread our Christianity in the World and made it good both by their lives and death should be frequent in primitive times First because those same figures although they be honourable memories both of their persons and pieties unto whose zeal and goodness we are so much indebted yet are they not so necessarily requisite unto any such purpose but that the Church can be without them Secondly because primitive Christians had not amongst them any such plenty of Artists as we have now a days to make them Thirdly because Pagans would have mis-interpreted the end and meaning of such figures as this our Doctor does in the midst of day light But that in those primitive times there was never any Christian so ill affected towards those pious representations as is Mr. Still appears sufficiently by the testimony of those ancient Doctors who mention incidentally the customs of those primitive times especially about the figure of the Cross which they made continually on their fore-head and breasts as a preservative against evil and kept it all over their houses particularly in their Bed chambers and closets either framed in wood or stone or painted in colours There be notwithstanding the deluge of time which swallows up all things some monuments yet left among us of the respect which those Christians then bore both to the reliques and figures of their Saints The very Chair of St. James the Apostle and first Bishop of Jerusalem Eusebius in the seventh book of his history attests that it was had in great esteem and veneration in all times even to his own days Accordingly S. Clement in his sixth book of apostolical constitutions gives this general testimony of that kind of piety in those primitive Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The very relicks saith he of Saints now living with God are not without their veneration Some remainds there be also of an apostolical Council at Antioch gathered out of S. Pamphilus and Origen wherein caution is given both against the Jews malice and Gentile idols by opposing the Images of Jesus and his holy Followers against them both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignatius also that worthy apostolical Prelate the third from St. Peter the Apostle in the Chair at Antioch thus signally speaks of the sign of the Cross in his Epistle to Philadelphia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Prince of this World saith he rejoyces when any one denies the Cross for he knows the confession of the Cross to be his own ruin this is the Standard against his power which so often as he either sees or hears it spoken of he shakes and trembles thus speaks that glorious Prelate The above-named Eusebius testifies also in the same book of his history that he saw even in his time the brazen Statue of our Lord Jesus which was set up in Paneada in Palestin unto his honour by the woman cured by him of the bloody flix so notable for miracles that they were spoke of all the World over This Statue of our Lord when Julian the apostate caused it to be thrown down and his own to be set up in place thereof a strange sodain fire from Heaven consumed the Statue of Julian as Zozomenus in his fist book witnesses And of the same brazen Statue of Christ our Lord write also Theophilact Damascenus and several others And here we may take notice by the way that charity and devotion set up statues to our Lord but apostasy malice pulls them down And whether Doctor Stillingfleet who busies himself so much to cast down the Images of Jesus our Lord and his holy followers would refuse to have his own set up for his great pains either in Guildhall or Cheapside he knows best himself Truly if that were done I do not believe that any of his neighbours or Countreymen would take him then for a Calf of Bethel Of the Images of the Virgin Mary made by St. Luke there is much fame amongst the antient writers in particular Theodorus Simeon Metaphrastes and Nicephorus The last of which does also attest in his second book that the said precious Relick was carried up and down the whole habitable World of Christians who looked upon it with a most greedy and unsatisfied devotion The same Nicephorus adds moreover how Constantius the Son of Constantine translated the Relicks of St. Luke from Thebes of St. Andrew from Achaia and of St. Timothy from Ephesus unto Constantinople with a vast concourse and joy of Christian People and there with all honour and reverential respect inshrined them in a Cathedral Church dedicated to the Apostles Of the Image also of Christ our Lord imprinted by himself in a Handkercher applyed to his own face and sent to King Abagarus who requested his Picture write Evagrius Metaphrastes and otâ—ers Of another Image of Jesus Christ made by Nicodemus which being ignominiously crucified by the Jews wrought many wonderous miracles we have a solemn testimony of Athanasius cited in the fourth action of the seventh great Synod And all this testifies that Christians in primitive times were affected towards holy Pictures and Relicks as Catholicks are at this day at least not such haters and vilifiers of them as is Dr. Stillingfleet Nor can I conceive how any of the learned in the Church of Rome should be ignorant of these things Nay the very Church of England which this Doctor pretends to defend hath lately put the Images of the Apostles and Primitive Saints into their Common-prayer-book and Primers printed by authority So that if the Doctor had opened his eyes he might have seen clear enough that all this talk of his is now unseasonable however it might have passed well enough in the beginning of the furioâ—s reformation when they pulled down all sacred figures and suffered none to be set up either sacred or common When Husbands broke their Wives pictures and Wives their Husbands least they should give ill example to St. Peter and Paul or incourage any of the twelve Apostles to creep up again upon their Walls
is no traditional Revelation or that God has used fraud or that his scribes have been unsincere with us because there are some divine Revelations written or again that there is no external infallible proponent or obliging Authority as to matter of faith and manners necessary because every one is an infallible proponent to himself and can use his best endeavours to discern the true sense of Scripture in necessaries to Salvation or also that the Church of Rome is not the Catholick Church nor any sound part thereof because the true believer must sinceâ—ely endeavour to discover the true meaning of written Revelations according to the intention of Gods holy Spirit if I say these of such like discourses of the Dr be first principles we need not fear begging the question in any discourse whatsoever But I purpose not here Sir to give you a special report either of the Drs. account of our Calick Religion or of his Principles of his own intending not to exceed the limits of a preliminary Epistle or to forestall your TO KATHOLIKO or the labours of others who have already entred the field or perhaps will hereafter appear there to help on the Doctors Itch of writing against the Roman Church or for his own as he makes it his Profession though to as little purpose as if he had forbid his beard to grow or the Sun to walk his usual rounds for God will preserve the work of his own hands should the Dr. scribble or babble till his dooms-day However it will be worth the while if he thinks his cause deserves it to consider his own contradictions his own Fanaticism his misrepresentations of our Catholick Devotions of our dâ—ctrine of repentance and Indulgences his Principles considered aâ—d this your Friends KATHOLIKO TO wherein he may find diversion enough for the exâ—â—cising his truth discerning faculty and sober enquiry And since he now has so notoriously injured the Catholick Church by Infamations and Novelties and has confidently provoked the Doctors therof to appear in the Field We may in all justice expect he will not as hitherto set guards upon all approaches nor shall be then want wherewith to employ his admirable talents in those his dear Fields which lay so open for himself to ramble in Now Sir as for any Answer to these our Reply's you must be sure to arm your self with a large store of Resignation either to be told by the Doctor of his many more important employments abroad and necessary Occupations at home for propagating the Gospel or to hear of some new disperate Piece against Popery which some considerable Person expects from him or that he is sick of some disease much like Demosthenes his Quinsie for 't is usual with Persons of his opportunities in this case still to answer besides the purpose nor to heed whatever has been often said unto them but ever to crow and caper as if each of them were a Conqueror so true is it That although thou shouldest bray a Fool in a Morter amongst Wheat with a Pestell yet will not his foolishness depart from Him So unwilling to detain You any longer from the perusal of this your KATHOLIKON I remain SIR Your devoted Servant J. C. June 25. 1672. TO THE READER Courteous Reader FOr preventing mistakes thou art desired to take Notice that some few Copies of J. V. C. his Third Letter speaking to the pretended Fanaticism and Divisions of the Church of Rome stole abroad without either the review or allowance of the publisher and therfore they are not owned as the true and genuine Work of that Author that which is here presented unto Thee together with his first Epistle which refutes Image Idolatry imputed to that Church formerly Printed now reprinted with addition and likewise his Second Letter replying to Dr. Stilling fleets Host Idolatry and Saint Idolatry and also to his Hindrances of good Life and Devotion Which make the whole Posthume Work of that Worthy Author answering to that Doctors Account Most considerable Errata Corrected Image Idolatry Page 20. Line 13. Beades Host Idolatry â— Pag. 30. lin 8. do take pag. 37. l. 5. for all Hindrances c. Pag. 14. l. 22. he may not Pag. 18. l. 8 how the Sacraâ—ents p. 19. l. 23. oft no waies Fanaticism Pag. 11. lin 11. propagation pag. 12. l. 9. peace and. p. 23. Acab p. 16. l. 18. Feast of the. ΤΩ ΚΑΘΟΛΙΚΩ Stillingfleeton THe Book Sir which taken up with better affairs you sent unto me that I might after I had read it over draw an Abridgment of it for you with my own thoughts super-added in the close by way of a short Comment thereon is the second production as it seems of Doctor Stillingfleet against Popery Less displeasing it is I think to a Reader and nothing so tiresome as some other Books which have issued forth on that Side against the ways of Catholick Religion For there is some Truth in his Citations a seasoning of Salt and comical Wittiness sprinkled all over and no such thick gross venom of maliciousness wherewith other Books of that kind are overcharged appearing though much of it lie hid throughout his Book Indeed he perverts all things by his various subtilty But that is no more but what his own fame and interest here principally aimed at would require And we must give him leave to deride also and play and sport himself in his Book as a Leviathan in his own waters It is his pastiâ—ue and pleasure and a sweetness esteemed perhaps necessary to his life And who would be so ill-natur'd as to envy it him Besides it is a pretty piece of Rhetorick both fit and very efficacious to create in his Protestant Readers an opinion of his unerring confidence which is the one great end of his Labours And if we be thus kind he will in recompence of that our civility give leave I suppose to Catholicks who see him so jocund and supinely careless in his errors thence to conclude the strange inconsiderate security of the merry man But we must know Sir that this his elaborate Book against the Church of Rome as he speaks although it be his second yet is it not intended to be his last For If Catholicks have any thing to say quoth he either against our Church or in defence of their own let them come into the open Field from whence they have of late so wisely withdrawn themselvs finding so little success in it Thus he speaks in his Preface threatning if I understand him right another Knocker as stout a one as this can be if any one dare to appear against him or say so much as Boh to a Goose And these words of his import I think a Challenge called commonly a Defiance which Catholicks as soon as they had read thought it as much their duty as it sounded to be the Doctors desire to fit their Slings unto their Arms and meet him But the thing proved alas to be but a Copy of
after his Resurrection And yet he had never any command to worship him in those plains either of Damascus or Libanus The particular Revelation of his presence there was a Monitor sufficient of his duty The person of Christ saith he visibly appearing to us in any place may be worshipped but there is not the same reason of believing and seeing All other good Christians before Dr. Stillingfleet judged revelation and believing to be a surer testimony in matters of Faith and Religion than our seeing is Let us hear one of our Christian Doctors speak whose testimony will serve for all the rest We have not declared unto you saith St. Peter the vertue and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in any fabulous mythology but as we have seen with our eyes his own Majesty For he received from God the Father honour and glory by a vâ—yce conveighed unto him from that glorious magnificence saying thus This is my well beloved Son in whom is my sole content And this voyce we our selves heard derived from Heaven when we were together with him in the holy Mount And yet have we more firm Prophetical words unto which while you attend as to a light shining in an obscure place ye shall do well until the dâ—y dawn and the morning Star arise in your hearts Thus speaks St. Peter our Lords great Apostle who though he beheld our Lords Glory in the Mount and heard there a voyce from Heaven unto his honour yet he prefers before both these private testimonies the one general Authority of Divine Revelation as firmer and more authentical than either or yet both of them put together as the sole standing unextinguishable general light set up in the obscurity of this our dark life for the assured guidance of all men As if he had plainly told us that our private sences may be deceived especially in matters of Apparitions and transitory Visions imparted unto some one or other apart But prophetick speech and revelation this is general and the same to all this is unerring and firm this stands for ever Here have we plainly good St. Peters mind in this affair But our Doctor resolves otherwise Divine revelation although we have it will not serve his turn But if he could see Christ appearing to him any where he could worship him then and would perhaps do it There is not the same reason with him in believing and seeing and that is indeed true St. Peter sayes so like wise But St. Peter says that believing is firmer than seeing Dr. Stillingfleet avers that seeing is firmer than believing He would be afraid to act that upon meer Divine Revelation which he will not fear to do upon sight Could he see Christ appear to him he would worship him but he cannot by any means worship him where Gospel testifies his presence and he sees it not Nay he avers a little afterward that he can kneel down and worship Christ any where excepting only in the Eucharist where his corporeal presence is the cause of adoration He can do it where no cause obliges him to it no peculiar cause exacting it But in no wise will he be brought to it where his presence known by Revelation stands to claim it Gospel the custome of Christianity quite spoiles his Devotion and keeps him from doing that homage to our Lord in the Church which he could freely give him in a Market-place And if any should reply quoth he that blessed is he who hath not seen and yet believed he may know that this saying of his is impertinent to this present purpose because it relates only unto the Resurrection This he speaks not considering that the said assertion of our Lord Blessed is he who sees not and yet believes is indefinite and consequently general equally appliable unto all things our Lord ever acted or taught us either to believe or hope for And as our Lord used it to his Disciples in the business of the Resurrection so must it hold good equally in that of his Incarnation Ascention or any thing else he either spoke or acted for us And though it be applyed unto one thing it doth not therefore follow that it relates to nothing else nor is pertinent to any other mystery but that We may well and properly say according to Dr. Stillingfleet Blessed is he who hath not seen and yet believed the Resurrection But we must not say Blessed is he that hath not seen and yet believed the Incarnation Ascention Christs miracles in curing the Deaf Dumb Lame and Blind in raising the dead and preaching eternal happiness to his followers Unto all this that saying is impertinent with him it relates to nothing at all but the Resurrection And have we not here a solemn and peculiar wit and one that may well challenge the whole world to come forth into the open field against him But we must note here that the Doctor does not grant any such Divine Revelation which may either clearly speak our Lords presence in the Eucharist or justifie our worship in it only he permits it to pass for disputation sake and avers that if there were any such Revelation yet would it not suffice to free us from Idolatry and this he does to give us an experiment of his wit And that experiment we have had and must be content with it till more come § 5. It is here granted saith he that in the celebration of the Euchaâ—ist we are to give a spiritual worship unto Christ as well as to the Father performing that religious Act with a due veneration of his Majesty and power with a thankfulness for his goodness a trust in his promises and a subjection to his supreme Authority We grant also that external reverence may be shown in the time of receiving the Eucharist in signification of our humble and thankful acknowledgment for his benefits Here be a great many good things granted us here and I take them thankfully In his first Chapter he was so Zealously hot that he would grant us nothing no not so much as to hang up such pictures in our Chambers as he has himself looking upon him in his own but can we get this grant of his ratified and sealed by all the Protestants in England If it were the Church of England would look the better for it Nay will not be himself what he has granted us to day revoke again to morrow The Doctor should do well to read over now and then his own grants and denyals For he is not so fixed in them that one dare take his word as I could easily specifie both in this and other particulars But I refrain from that work now as needless Sir to you at least we have as much here granted as adoration requires But I cannot perceive he will have any of it relate to ought subsisting in the Eucharist but only to the Author of it who is in Heaven upon a consideration of his benefits which is some part of Catholick truth
spirit from them So may we contrariwise think of this worthy society of Jesuits that such a stable gravity and fixed wisdom as is in them all must needs be derived unto them from the spirit and statutes of their founder That is I think a true moral physiognomy which is given us by the Lyrick poet especially in a continual succession of men Fortes creantur fortibus bonis Est in juvencis est in equis patrum Virtus nec imbelles ferocem Progenerant aquilam columbae But let St. Ignace be never so simple yet did he ever submit unto his Superiours and Pastours walking all his daies in Catholick religion and had his rule of life confirmed by his Prelate and therfore could be no fanatick according to the Doctours definition of it He neither invented any new way of religion nor yet resisted authority under pretence of it But I think the doctour gave us that definition of fanaticisme in the begining of this his Chapter only to keep his discourse far enough off and never to touch it § 16. The Doctour proceeds now to declare how the very Catholick way of devotion doth promote enthusiasme And what think you Sir doth he speak of here not one word of our daily psalms hymns canticles anthems sacred lessons doxologies our Lords prayer or any other devotion prescribed by the Church and almost hourly in the hands and eyes of Catholick people not a word of our examination of our selves upon our knees penitential petitions or other our obsecrations thanksgivings deprecations or interpellations for our selves and all other good Christian people for Kings and prelates and all constituted in authority over us that we may live a peaceable and quiet life with all piety and decent behaviour No mention of all this which he knows as I perceive by his talking of our Manuels and Breviaries to be our Catholick devotion no not one word What is it then he calls the Catholick way of devotion Only one spiritual book set forth by Mr. Cressy about twenty Years ago out of Father Baxers works wherin the Doctour finds some uncouth hard words which he cannot understand this is that which he calls Catholick devotion and this is all the way he shows that Catholick devotion promotes enthusiasme Have not I reason Sir to be weary in following after such a butterfly § 17. He tells us at last That Papists are guilty of resisting authority under pretence of religion which he proves first by the principles of the Jesuitical party which are destructive to government and Secondly by this that the said party are most countenanced in the Court of Rome But he never tells us what are these principles of the Jesuitical party nor what this Jesuitical party is He only names Mariana and one or two others who should say that a Prince excommunicated loses his Soveraignty For which boldness they suffered worthily both by their own body and others Now how this discourse of our Doctour agrees with his purpose all this while pretended here I cannot see For it has not so much as the colour which appeared in some sort hitherto His book is intitled A Discourse of the idolatrous fanaticisme of the Church of Rome but now he tells us of a Jesuitical party and the Court of Rome The Society of Jesuits a religious grave prudent family in the Catholick Church of God this I have heard of and the Church of Rome or Catholick Church I know But what is this Jesuitical party and what this Court of Rome I understand not at all The Doctour pretended to speak of the Church and her religion though indeed he hath never come neer it yet But now he speaks that which hath not so much as the sound of it A Jesuitical party and a Court what are these to our purpose now in hand There be parties and as many designs signs as there be men in this world although they should be all of one religion and not all of them nay not perhaps one in a thousand directed according to Gospel or right reason at all times but for avarice rather solicitude of this world or sensuality Who can mend this Or whose part is it to justify such things No man that defends a religion can conceive how they may concern him and he that opposes a religion if he were wise or honest would never object them And as for the Court of Rome I know no more of it then I do of the Court of France Spain or Constantinople I have long since been told that the designs of Courts and Courtiers are politick high ambitious and close And I have heard again that they are of one and the same opinion all over the face of the earth a high elevated secret mysterious way unknown to us peasants who are born in sin although it go under the name still of that rurall religion which is countenanced in their respective Kingdoms How true these things be and what this way of theirs is I know not nor do I love to speak of them at all One part of our duty I think and respect towards our Superiours is silence and not to speak at all of them For we may conclude that God subjected all other Creatures unâ—o man becaus he created them dumb And certainly enough may we imagine that the opinions of Courts and Courtiers are very high since one can hardly meet any ordinary man who would not have the whole earth under his command and power if he could get it It is not long since we had here threescore thousand of our own Protestant Countrymen armed in the field who held all of them an opinion that the Kings Crown was at their disposal So they wrote so they talked and so they acted And it is hard to say in what head are the most presumptuous ambitious and lofty opinions And our Doctour himself who so contemptuously treats King Pepin Charlemaign and other renowned Kings of the earth nay all the Catholicks in the world at once cannot be one of the humblest and modestest of men Court of Rome and Jesuitical party sounds in my ears like a thorough Bass and treble Violyn playing together the one strikeing three long humming Notes about the double Gamut the other descanting theron in short and quicker graces The Court of Rome I something perceive methinks what it should be but not what it is But the Jesuitical party with all its graces I neither know what it is nor what it should be That worthy Society of Jesuits may be considered either according to their religion or Schools or personal designs According to their religion they are as other Catholicks be in the same worship same Sacraments same Altar same Priesthood same faith same hope to come As to their Schools although they have I believe five hundred Readers of the Chair and perhaps as many publick defensions in every three years space yet did I never hear of any such thing either taught or defended in their Schools which