timeat Vae illud adjicientibus aut detrahentibus destinatum Tertull. advers Hermogen c. 22. He said he adored the Fulness of the Scripture and bids Hermogenes to have a care of the Woe denounced against those that added or took any thing away from Scripture if he could not shew that what he taught was to be found in the Scriptures And the same We can shew of St. Basil who as he does plead Tradition without express Scripture for the Practices and Constitutions of the Church with the rest of the Fathers as our Compiler hath quoted him t Nubes Test p. 55 56. Nat. Alexan. p. 375 376 377. so he is as earnest as any of the Fathers for the Sufficiency and Authority of the Written Word as to Matters of Faith and in his Sermon about True Faith u 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Basil Sermo de vera Fide T. 2. p. 251. declares it to be a manifest deviation from Faith and a sign of Pride either to reject any part of the Scriptures or to add to them since Christ had told us that his Sheep would hear his voice and not a Stranger 's Our Compiler is very exact in his next quotation and * Nubes Test p. 57. Nat. Alexan. p. 377. gives us book and page but instead of thanking him we must thank F. Alexandre who help'd him to them but should have remembred himself to have quoted Oration instead of Book the place from Gregory Nyssen however might have been spared since the Tradition he speaks of is that of the Apostles and Evangelists and That we are sure was written in the Scriptures but allowing this Tradition to be an unwritten one it is not about a point of Faith but the Interpretation of it wherein we allow the Tradition of Antiquity to be highly usefull and necessary The first Authority from Epiphanius x Nub. Test p. 58. N. Alex. p. 351. is not against us who do not require express Scripture for every custome but admit of Tradition as Authority sufficient in such a case and in his next all that he contends for is that it was a Tradition of the Church to pray for the dead and y Nub. Test p. 58. N. Alex. p. 378. that the Holy Ghost did teach partly by the written word and partly by Tradition which last part of his words if it be stretched to speak of matter of Faith is more than can be allowed to Epiphanius since the first Fathers teach the direct contrary as I could have shewn from Tertullian and others as well as I did from Irenaeus St. Austin's places z Nub. Test p. 59 60. N. Alex. p. 380 381 382 383. as relating to Ecclesiastical Practices and Constitutions are answered above that from Vincentius Lirinensis relates to the same the last from St. Chrysostome * Nub. Test p. 61. N. Alex. p. 354. speaks of the times of the Apostles themselves whose Preachings as well as Writings were the very same did proceed from the same Holy Spirit and therefore were of equal Authority and for what he adds about the Tradition of the Church that when it is offered to us we should enquire no farther it does certainly refer onely to Practices and Customs of the Church since as to matters of a higher nature to wit those that concern our Faith and Salvation He makes Scripture-Authority absolutely necessary and teaches us not to say any thing of our own heads without the Testimony of the Sacred Inspired Writers for this very reason †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Chrys Hom. in Ps 95. p. 1042. Tom. 3. Edit Ducaei because if we affirm or say any thing without having the Authority of Scripture for it the understandings of our Auditors waver one while assenting another while doubting one while rejecting our discourse as frivolous another while admitting it but as probable at most but when once we produce the Written Testimony of God's Word we confirm our own discourse and fix and settle the Vnderstanding of the Auditors I hope our Compiler when he hath read this will have another notion concerning the Authority of Tradition We do admit it as to Discipline and Practice with the Primitive Fathers but as to points of Faith and Doctrines of necessity to Salvation we do require with them the Written Testimony of the Word of God or an Vniversal uninterrupted Tradition as clear as that by which we receive the Scriptures themselves CHAP. IV. Concerning Invocation of Saints SECT I. HOW little the Church of Rome is able to produce Vniversal Tradition for those points of Controversie which we at present contend about is what our Compiler's next head comes now to shew That there is no foundation in Scripture no command for nor Practice of Invocation of Saints or paying any Religious Worship to them or their Reliques is what they are forced to grant they must then have recourse to Tradition and shew us from that what they were not able to doe from Scripture it self that the Church of God always practised and taught such a Worship of Saints and Reliques as the Church of Rome doth now teach and practise Our Compiler begins this point with an account of the Heresie of Vigilantius as F. Alexandre calls it this account he hath borrowed out of that Fathers a In Par. 1. Sec. 5. c. 3. p. 50 51 c. account of the Heresie of Vigilantius and every syllable of the Testimonies under this head for above twenty pages together out of the same Friend b Dissertat 5. in Panoplia adv Haereses Sect. 5. in Par. 2. Seculi quinti. He tells us that in the beginning of the fourth Century Vigilantius began to teach his pestilent Doctrines but this is a mistake of our Compiler who hath placed Vigilantius here by the same figure that he puts Damasus and Julius c Append. to Nub. Test p. 191. in the Third Century Victor in the first and Aerius exactly in the middle of the same Century Vigilantius lived in the beginning of the fifth Century when the quarrel betwixt him and St. Hierome began we are not at all concerned in this quarrel any farther than to stand by that Doctrine and those Practices which were most agreeable to the Scriptures the Foundation of Faith. The Differences betwixt us and the Church of Rome in these points are so well known that I need spend no time about shewing wherein they are it is sufficient to advertise that they of that Church teach and practise the putting up prayers to Saints and Angels paying Religious Worship to them prostrating themselves before Reliques and the like every one of which we refuse upon reasons which from Scripture and the purest Antiquity seem invincible to us The Church of Rome will have what she teaches and practises in these things to have been the Constant Practice and Original Tradition of the Whole Church of Christ and this is the thing which lies upon them to
the merits that are in the Treasury of the Church and to what purpose are they kept there nor their wickedness damn us An Answer that doth at once ruin the Papal Infallibility and Supremacy and therefore was the more likely to be concealed by one of that Church I do not lay the accusation against our Compiler also because he good man was I believe purely passive in the thing and if he is here unfaithfull to St. Austin and to the Reader it is because his Guide was unfaithfull to him SECT II. The next Errour of the Donatists is about the failure of the Church in Opposition to which our Compiler tells us Nubes Testium p. 6. that the Fathers maintain That the Catholick Church cannot fail as being assisted by the Spirit of God. I am as much at a loss about this point of Controversie as I was about the first I have not met with any of our Writers that are for proving or asserting that this Catholick Church can fail and am thereby pretty well assured that it is none of the Tenets of our Church-men that the Catholick Church can or hath failed and I am as certain that it is none of the Doctrines of the Church it self so that I must beg this Gentleman's pardon that I cannot believe that this opinion of the failure of the Catholick Church is one of the chief points of Controversie at present under debate I am so far from being of that faith that I think it not onely ridiculous but false to assert that there is any Controversie betwixt us about the failing or not failing of the Catholick Church and I cannot but observe that our Compiler who is so carefull in the Appendix to his Collections to gather the Concessions or Assertions of Protestants about the points and heads of Controversie in his Book either forgot to produce their Assertions and Concessions concerning this and the precedent point or was not able to produce any which I am the more ready to believe because I look on the thing as impossible If then not withstanding this Gentleman there really be no Controversie betwixt us touching this head both parties believing that the Catholick Church by reason of our blessed Lord his promised assistence cannot fail it will very readily be granted that all the citations out of the Fathers upon this head against the Donatists do not in the least affect or concern the Church of England since she detests that Errour of the Donatists as much as any other Church can I need not therefore examine the particular passages since granting them all the strength and evidence they are produced for they are not at all against the Church of England I will onely inform the Reader that the passages for this point are taken out of the same Volume and the same Dissertation of Natalis Alexandre h See Dissertatio 38 â—â—rs secunda Seculi quarti p. 182 186 164. that the former were borrowed from I must except the first quotation from St. Cyprian which does not occur in that place but is I question not borrowed from some other part of N. Alexandre's works I must observe also that our Compiler does in the first Testimony i Nub. Test p. 6. from St. Cyprian exactly transcribe the Errours of his Guide and that the Guide himself either did not look into St. Austin for this passage but very honestly copied some Romish Friend of his or was more than half asleep when he was writing this passage thence without one of these I cannot see how he should put reges for regna and virtutis for fortitudinis in the beginning of it I have looked into two or three Editions for this thing and find them exactly agreeing in this place and directly against the Guide and the Compiler SECT III. The last crime of the Donatists set down by our Compiler is their Schism Nub. Test p. 10. upon which he says the Fathers unanimously declare that whosoever breaks the Vnity of the Catholick Church upon any pretext whatsoever is guilty of Schism c. I am so far from the humour of making disputes or quarrels in things wherein there ought to be none and so desirous of reaching that part of his Book which does contain matter of real Disputes betwixt us that I shall here assure our Authour that taking the word Pretext here in the sense wherein it is commonly used among us for a false shew or groundless pretence I am perfectly of his Father's mind that it is destructive of Salvation causelesly to break the Vnity of the Catholick Church and that the Donatists who acted thus were really guilty of a Criminal Schism but I must withall assure our Compiler that I cannot see how this can be made matter of dispute betwixt us who both agree in asserting the same thing with those venerable Fathers or how this can any way affect or concern the Division that is at present betwixt us and the particular Church of Rome that Church tells us that they separate from us upon grounds which make such a Separation absolutely necessary and we prove against them that our Reasons for not communicating with them are much more absolutely such and that Communion with them upon the Terms fixt by their Council of Trent were destructive of Salvation and therefore by no means to be espoused Our Compiler hath gathered a great many Authorities of the Fathers upon this head to every one of which we of the Church of England do very heartily subscribe and are at the same time able from Scripture and Antiquity to justifie our necessary separation from the Bishop and Church of Rome I heartily wish those that allowed this Book to the Press and all the Romish Missionaries in England would consider the quotations on this point of Schism from St. Cyprian especially and above the rest that about the aliud Altare which was always so odious in the Catholick Church and will be so while there is a Church of Christ on Earth All the passages upon this head except two or three are to be found with the very same mistakes in them in the same Volume and Dissertation of Natalis Alexandre k Dissertatio tricesima octava Pars secunda Seculi quarti the first with a foolish consequence about Calvinists sympathizing with the Donatists tack'd to the end of it in p. 187. the next with the rest in page 187 188 189 223 191 192 193 194 195 230 196. The passage from St. Austin in p. 230. in Nat. Alexandre l Nubes Test p. 20. Nat. Alex. p. 230. is very much abused non eo ad daemonia sed tamen in parte Donati sum is not all that Saint Austin says here it is much fuller in him and Father Alexandre had shewed himself an ingenuous man if instead of putting in Luther and Calvin's name there after Donatus which is nothing to the purpose he had put in what should have been there and let us see the
Peter concerning Christ which is espoused by the Church of England is true and Catholick that to interpret it of St. Peter's person is to contradict the Stream of Catholick Antiquity and consequently that there is no ground from this Text of St. Matthew for the Supremacy of St. Peter or the Bishops of Rome I suppose it will not be expected here that I should set down all these numerous Authorities which the excellent Launoy hath with so much industry collected to prove that by the Rock in this Text is meant the Faith confessed by St Peter I will onely put down one or two passages of the Fathers omitted by him that the World may see that that excellent Person hath not exhausted the Subject nor produced all the Proofs of those Authours whom He sets down The first shall be Epiphanius omitted by Launoy who brings in our Saviour saying to St. Peter That upon this Rock of unshaken u 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiph. adv Haer. L. 2. T. 1. p. 500. Edit Par. Petav. 1622. Faith I will build my Church St. Chrysostom tells us that our Saviour said upon this Rock not upon Peter for he built his Church not upon the man Peter but upon the Faith * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 D. Chrys Sermo de Pentecoste p. 233. in T. 6. Edit Ducael 1636. which He had confessed As to the latter part of this passage from St. Matthew to wit about the promise made to St. Peter of having the Keyes bestowed upon him I am sure it is very far from doing the Romanists any service since it is abundantly plain that when our Saviour after his Resurrection came to perform the promise he had made here He did bestow the Power of the Keyes equally among the Apostles without preserring one Apostle above another or giving to one a greater share in the Vse of the Keyes than to the rest so that if St. John's Gospel be but as Authentick as St. Matthew's we are fully secured that this Power of the Keyes was equally given in Saint John x S. John 20.21 22 23. and therefore equally promised in St. Matthew to all the Apostles It were very easie to shew from abundance of the Fathers Expressions that there is nothing in this promise peculiar to St. Peter Origen tells us that what was promised here was common to the rest of the Apostles y Quod si dictum hoc tibi dabo claves regni coelorum caeterisque quoque commune est c. Orig. Tr. 1. in Matt. p. 39. Edit Freb. 1530. and Saint Austin informs us somewhere as I have met with it quoted that as St. Peter made the Confession in the name and as the mouth of all the Apostles so He received this promise in the behalf of all as representing them all But if any contend that this promise was performed assoon as spoken and therefore that there was something extraordinary and particular to St. Peter here since he is here invested with those Keyes which the rest of the Apostles had nothing to doe with nor were admitted to any share in them till just before our Saviour his Ascension our Answer is very ready that the rest of the Apostles did certainly here receive the same power of the Keyes that they will have St. Peter invested with because in the next Chapter but one a Matth. 18.17 18. to this our Saviour speaks to all the Apostles as already invested with this power of the Keyes which Assertion of ours the Generality of the Fathers are so far from opposing that the abovenamed b In Ep. ad Vallantium Learned Sorbonist Monsieur Launoy hath with prodigious pains demonstrated that St. Peter did receive the power of the Keyes in the name of the Apostles their Successours and the whole Church and that the Catholick Church is the proximate Subject of all Church-power This he hath evidenced from the concurrent Authority of at least c Launoii Ep. ad Hadrian Vallantium in Par. secunda Epp. seventy Fathers and Ecclesiastical Writers among whom we find eight Councils three Vniversities one Learned King our Henry the Eighth eleven Popes and two Rituals from above two hundred Testimonies as I think I may safely say it out of these Writings So that if these passages from St. Matthew about the Rock and the Power of the Keyes be not invincibly demonstrated to be directly contrary to the Romish Pretensions and their urging St. Matthew's Expressions for their Popes Supremacy be not hence proved to be extravagantly unreasonable and perfectly groundless I must e'en say that it is utterly impossible for the wisest man in the World to prove any thing even from the best Evidences and that the Decree of their Council of Trent That Scripture be interpreted by the unanimous consent of Fathers is the foolishest order in the World if so many and so great Testimonies be not able to rescue these two passages of St. Matthew from the abusive Interpretations of the Popes Vpholders The other place of Scripture alledged by them to prove the Divine Institution of St. Peter's Supremacy is that of St. John d S. Joh. 21.15 16 17. wherein our Saviour bids St. Peter thrice to feed his Sheep and Lambs From this place they say F. Alexandre among the rest that the chief care of the Church and a sacred Principality in it over all conditions aswell Apostles as others was conferred upon St. Peter by our Saviour but this is much easier said than proved since the natural sense and a fair interpretation of the words extends no farther than a repeated command of feeding Christ's Flock which hath nothing of extraordinary in it since the rest of the Apostles had had the same Injunctions though not in the same terms laid upon them and farther if this place must be forced to settle something upon St. Peter it will make him not the chief but the sole Pastour of the Catholick Church since here just before his Ascension our Saviour gives his Commands and commits the Charge of his whole Flock to St. Peter alone and this is the sense wherein the Council of Florence seems to have taken these words in St. John when in the Canon I set down above it defines that the full or whole power of feeding P. 9. ruling and governing the whole Church was given to the Pope in St. Peter If this be their sense therefore I desire to know of these men what is become of the charge given to the rest of the Apostles of going to teach which is the same with feeding all Nations which includes old and young Sheep and Lambs I would be informed also what there is more either of Authority or Charge in this passage than in that general Commission in St. Matthew e Matth. 28.19 20. and farther I would fain know whether this Commission here about feeding the Sheep and Lambs doth cancell that solemn and general one to all the Apostles in the Chapter next
Censuram Hungaricam Quatuor Propositionum Cleri Gallicanâ— p. 16. in Richerius's Vindiciae Doctrinae Majorum Scholae Parisiensis of Hungary that there is nothing so directly contrary to the most plain words of Scripture to the most evident Testimonies of the Fathers and the Practice of the whole Catholick Church for above a thousand years as the Doctrine of the Pope's having sole power in Judging Controversies of Faith so that I hope if I cannot those Authorities may convince our Compiler that he had better let this Testimony alone I will pass the two next Testimonies and tell our Compiler that as to the Council of Constantinople they did not submissively desire as our Compiler b Nub. Test p. 46. Nat. Alex. p. 306. and F. Alexandre do most falsly assert they did the Confirmation of their Decrees from Damasus Bishop of Rome there is nothing in this Epistle of Damasus to ground such a thing on and which is more it is certain that they did desire of the Emperour Theodosius c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prosphoneticus Concilii C. P nd Imper. Theodosio in T. 2. Concil p. 945. Edit Cossart who had convened this Council that H E would confirm their Decrees Thus I have gone through all the Testimonies collected by our Compiler and instead of answering the last to wit the Definition of the Council of Florence in the method I have done those hitherto I will conclude against it that as I have shewn above that there was no ground from Scripture nor Canon of the Vniversal Church that did in the least countenance what the Council of Florence did define concerning the Pope so neither doth any of the instances pickt up by our Compiler confirm or illustrate that Decree and therefore we have reason to say that the Pope's Supremacy had neither countenance nor being during the first five hundred years after our Saviour CHAP. III. Concerning Tradition SECT I. THE business of Tradition is that which our Compiler undertakes next to defend I cannot understand to what purpose He takes so much pains to tell us the Gnosticks Heresie with that of the Marcionites and Valentinians since I hope none of those Heresies are chargeable now upon us no not that worship of Images which was among the Gnosticks and is to be heard of in a Church now in the World We could wish all our Neighbours were as far from any thing bordering on those Heresies we do heartily desire that as they do not believe in Thirty Gods with the Valentinians so they were as far from having thrice thirty Objects of Religions Worship I heartily wish our Compiler had read that second Chapter of Saint Irenaeus his third Book against the Hereticks which he a Nubes Testium p. 48. Nat. Alex. Dissertatio decima sexta adversus Valentinianâ—â— c. in Par. secunda Seculi secundi p. 349. from F. Alexandre quotes to a very false purpose if either He or F. Alexandre himself had read this third Book of Irenaeus had read but this second Chapter nay more but the very Title of it our Compiler would not have talked so sillily about those Hereticks rejecting the received Doctrines and Practices of the Church because they pretended they were not in Scripture nor F. Alexandre b Nat. Alex. Ibidem p. 348. Praenotandum tertio hanc fuisse Veterum Haereticorum indolem ut solas ad Scripturas provocarent have put down such an egregious falshood as to say the Hereticks in defence of their Tenets appealed onely to Scripture when the very Title of this Chapter in Irenaeus tells us that the Hereticks would be ruled neither by Scripture nor Tradition in their Disputes with the Church * Quod neque Scripturis neque Traditionibus obsequantur haeretici Titulus c. 2. l. 3. Irenael adv Haereses I will set down here the beginning of the Chapter it self because it is so like the prattle of a sort of people now in the World who would be very angry to be called Hereticks When says Irenaeus c Cùm enim ex Scripturis arguuntur in accusationem convertuntur ipsarum Scripturarum quasi non rectè habeant neque sint ex authoritate quia variè sint dictae quia non possit ex his inveniri veritas ab his qui nesci ant Traditionem Non enim per literas traditam illam sed per vivam vocem D. Irenaeus adv Haereses l. 3. c. 2. Edit Fevardent you argue against these Hereticks from the Scriptures themselves they quickly fall to accusing them that They are not right that they are not of Authority a Romanist would have added without our Church's approbation that things are set down variously and that there is no finding the Truth out of them by those who are ignorant of Tradition since It was delivered by Word of mouth not by Writing But to proceed to his new point of Controversie d Nubes Test p. 48. Nat. Alexan. p. 351. our Compiler tells us that the Fathers maintain that the Tradition of the Catholick Church is to be received and that Her Constitutions and Practices are not to be rejected though not found expresly in Scripture How loose a Writer our Compiler is the World hath been sufficiently informed by the Answers to his other pieces in this point He is resolved to act the same person while he so gingerly puts down part of the Debate betwixt us and suppresses the rest of it To state therefore the Controversie about Tradition if there really be any betwixt us He should not have put down that for the account of the Debate herein betwixt us which is agreed to by both sides nor should have omitted that wherein we really disagree and that is about the Scriptures being a certain and perfect Rule of Faith without the help of Tradition which the Council of Trent hath made to be of Equal Authority with the Scripture What our Compiler hath set down is no Controversie betwixt us since we do declare that the Tradition of the Catholick Church is to be received we do own that by This we received the Holy Scriptures and know how to separate the Scriptures from Apocryphal or Supposititious Writings and we profess also that we are willing and ready to receive any Doctrine not written that hath as perpetual unanimous and certain a Tradition as the Doctrines written in Scripture have that we onely wait for their proving that any of those Doctrines they would obtrude upon us have been thus Vniversally delivered so that herein is no Controversie betwixt us and if by Constitutions our Compiler means those about Matters of Discipline and Government and by Practices the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church He knows or least ought to know that it is the Doctrine of our Church that there is no necessity of express Scripture for the Constitutions and Practices which she enjoins in order to the more regular and decent service of God. So that here
Discretion in this Account than his Master himself our Compiler * Nub. Test p. 151. begins his account with telling his Reader that the Jews Marcionites Manichees and Theopaschits had always shew'd themselves profess'd Enemies of Holy Images but his Master F. Alexandre tells us a greater piece of news that the Gentiles as well as b Nat. Alex. ibidem p. 65. Gentiles Judaei Marcionitae Manichaei Theopaschitae jam olim Sacris Imaginibus bellum indixere c. Jews Marcionites Manichees and Theopaschits had of a long time or as our Compiler translates jam olim always been enemies of the Holy Images I think this about the Pagans being such enemies to Images is a Discovery and a thing which few people would have thought or hit on but so it is if we may believe F. Alexandre and therefore his Transcriber was to blame not to let his English Reader hear of it that so he might know whom we herd with that are such enemies to Images and that he might upon occasion call Protestants either Pagans or Iconoclasts since they are all of a humour and in the same faction against Holy Images It is not my business to examine this account of the Quarrels in the Eighth Century about Images it is owned that in that Century as one part of the Church by a large Council of Bishops did put a stop to and utterly forbid the making and Worship of Images which was an Evil then creeping into the Church so after them another Synod at Nice did endeavour to undoe what those religious Bishops had appointed and did command that Images should be put into Churches and be worshipped there But it must be remembred also that this last Conventicle of Nice was despised by the Western part of the Christian World and her Definitions condemned in a Council of three hundred Bishops at Frankford under Charles the Great who himself or some by his Command yet not without his Royal Assistence did with so much learning and accuracy fully confute all the Pleas and grounds for Images made use of by that Conventicle at Nice And as to our own Nation so far were They from submitting to what had been enacted at Nice that when the Emperour Charles the Great transmitted hither the Definitions of the Synod at Nice to Offa King of Mercia Hoveden c Imagines Adorari debere quod omnino Ecclesia Dei execratur Contra quod scripsit Albinus Alcuinus r. Epistolam ex authoritate Divinarum Scripturarum mirabiliter affirmatam illamque cum eodem libro ex Persona Episcoporum ac Principum nostrorum Regi Francorum attulit R. Hoveden Annal. Pars 1. p. 405. Edit Wechel 1601. tells us that the Church of God here did abominate and abhor what they had enacted at Nice about the Adoration of Images and that the famous Alcuin wrote and carried a Letter in the name of the Bishops and Princes of England to that Emperour wherein from the Sacred Authority of Scripture Alcuin baffled the Adoration of Images Passing therefore these things as nothing to the purpose of the present debate which should be to shew that Images were not onely used but adored within and during the first six Centuries after Christ We challenge our Enemies to shew that the Church of God in those first ages did not onely use but worship Images Our Compiler manages the beginning of his account so slyly and in his old way that I question not but most of his credulous and unthinking Readers do thereupon believe that Images were always used in the Catholick Church and always worshipped by Her. The Jews saith he Marcionites Nubes Test p. 151. Manichees and Theopaschits had ALWAYS shew'd themselves profess'd Enemies of Holy Images and had been industrious for the suppressing them among Christians But in the year 723 the Jews with an unusual fury declared War against them c. I appeal to all Learned men whether most men would not hence believe that Images had always been used and worshipped in the Primitive Church and I do not see why all that reade him should not believe the same since it is very natural for every one to argue thus with himself that the Holy Images could not Always have been opposed by the Jews Marcionites and the other Hereticks except they had Always been used and worshipped in the Church If then our Compiler did thus believe himself and had a mind to convey the same belief unto his Readers I must tell him that for all his reading of Father Alexandre's Books He discovers a great deal of ignorance in this thing since what He writes here is a notorious falshood but if he pretends that his meaning onely was that since Images were used in the Christian Church they had always been opposed by those Jews and others I must then assure him that He deals most disingenuously and uses too much craft for an Honest Writer while He suppresses that in this account which could onely keep his Readers from believing a gross untruth If our Compiler would doe the Controversie about Image-Worship any true service and keep within his own bounds the Belief and Practice of the first five hundred years of the Church He must shew that for those five hundred years as well as since Images were not onely used but worshipped by the Christians in their Assemblies How unable either our Compiler or his Master Father Alexandre are to shew such a worship of Images then is hence apparent in that they are not able to produce any Authour for the first three hundred years of the Church that speaks of Images either used or worshipped in the Church of Christ during that space of time I know our Compiler quotes Tertullian d Nub. Test p. 160. N. Alex. Dissertatio 6. be in Sec. 8. p. 628. but He is very unhappy in it since all the world knows that know any thing of Antiquity that Tertullian was so a far from speaking of the use of Images or the Lawfulness of them among Christians or any people else that he was against the very art of painting and making Images and lookt upon it as utterly unlawfull and universally forbidden e Idolum tam fieri quam coli Deus prohibet Propter hanc causam ad eradicandam scilicet materiam Idololatriae Lex Divina proclamat Ne feceris Idolum conjungens neque similitudinem eorum quae in coelis sunt c. Toto mundo ejusmodi Artibus interdixit Servis Dei. Tert. de Idololat c. 14. Edit Franek by God and farther that place of Tertullian which our Compiler alludes to for he does not give us Tertullian's but his Master F. Alexandre's words speaks not of any Image but of a mere embleme engraven upon a Chalice As to the three Testimonies f Nub. Test p. 154 155. N. Alex. p. 627 624. about the Statue of our Saviour set up before her door by the Woman whom our Saviour cured of the Issue of Bloud our