Church he justifies as much as it is against the Church he arraigns Indeed his whole Discourse is so frivolously subtile and subtilely frivolous that no Church needs much to heed what he says This I know and am certain of that although he should be confuted at large and confounded for ever by any Catholick Writer yet shall we be never the nearer to any quietness and peace For the next Man that wants a rich Benefice will if he have but this Man's Confidence Collect another Book of Popish Idolatry out of this Book of Doctor Stillingfleet as he gaâ—er'd this of his out of Henry More Jeremy Tailor and sundry others his Predecessors not heeding at all any answer that has been given by former Catholicks to the talk any more than Dr. Stillingfleet does here They will ever writeâ— one out of another and never regard what has been said to any one of them in defence of that which they oppose abecedarian Scriblers Nor can there be any end so â—ong as there is a bishoprick or fat benefice to hope for and Catholick hands so tied up that they can print nothing unto their own justification without insuperable difficulties and hazard I have read in London the Defiances of one Fencer to another both of them in Print Who accordingly do meet in Bear-Garden without any controul there to baste one another lustily for the Peoples pleasure And it would be a pastime I think equally delightful not less profitable and somewhat more civil to see two Men reason down one another We poor men should esteem it a great favour to us if our adversary might read his charge and we our defence even in Bear-garden Since neither in Churches Halls Universities or Schools are we permitted to speak or Print any thing to speak for us And Doctor Stillingfleet who hath made his Defiance already may which he hath not yet done appoint the Day Not men and fencers onely but bulls and bears cocks and dogs all are permitted to defend themselves when they are invaded but onely we poor old Christians whose Religion hath blessed our Land Fifteen-hundred Years As if it were agreed on all hands that we should never be rightly understood Mr. H. Thorndike a grave Divine and learned Doctor in our present English Church both affirms and strongly proves in his Book called Just Weights and Measures that Roman Catholicks are Idolaters no way Adding also That they who separate from the Church of Rome as Idolaters are thereby Schismaticks before God Thus speaks that learned Man the Phaenix of divines who only dares to be honest And the meer authority of this eminent Protestant may suffice to evacuate all the sophistry of this whole Chapter of this Doctors book as also of that which follows in the next place about our holy Host and Saints Now Sir I must bid you farewel And that you may not think me either idle or neglective of my duty and respects to you pray give me leave to tell you that what you see here printed but now was written and ready for the Press in August last And before October ended I had finished all my work upon Dr. Stilling fleet 's Book such-like familiar Commentaries as these upon his first chapter be But in all these Six Moneths I could get no more Printed for You either at home or abroad than this poor Fifth Part of the whole after my many travels vexations expences and dangers Such obstructions are made about the Presses and so many violences offered here continually far above any used since we were born that I can see no possibility for any whole Book of ours to shoot that gulf be our cause never so innocent and good Nay they will here Print our Catholick Books themselves as if they were their own as Thomas a Kempis Granada Parsons Resolutions Drexelsius and the like But if we be taken Printing them the PRESS is broken PRINTER punished and we if we be found in danger of our Lives And therefore I beseech you Sir be content with thus much or rather this little The rest you shall have in written hand In the mean time let Dr. Still triumph and crow as he pleases He is made and has made himself sure enough Although he hath defied the whole Catholick world and all that know of it having something to say are both willing and ready yet will no Man come forth into the open field against him because they cannot He thinks himself wise no doubt wiser than millions of men and may do so still For my part Sir I find him as wise as one man and no more Farewel TO KATHOLICO SIR I Am glad you have received my first Packet lately and indeed too late transmitted to you and yet more that you rest contented with my brief Postill upon so small a parcel of Dr. Stilling fleets Book after so long an expectation Sooner than I did I could send you nothing and although I could have said more upon the first Chapter which I sent you yet since you are satisfied with it I am now content that I said no more Sir by that his beginning you may well suspect that the Doctor means to deal insincerely with us And this you shall see so plainly in each parcel of his Book that you will grieve at his wilfull and studied insincerity For as to the abovesaid business of Images first he knows well enough that to set up the Statues and Images of renowned persons after their decease of magnificent Kings just Judges learned Philosophers valiant Captains illustrious Historians powerfull Orators flourishing Poets great Inventers of Arts and Sciences for a Nations good has been and is still and ever will be the custom of all Nations upon earth not wholly excepting the very Jews themselves who keeping so honourable memories of Abraham Isaac and Jacob by Tradition of words long before they travelled from Egypt into Palestine where they were by the way forbidden to make to themselves or worship any Idols of the Nations amongst whom they might converse cannot be thought to have had any aversion from the figures or faces of tâ—oâ—e their Ancestors if any they had or could have had amongst them Secondly the Doctor knows or ought to know that three very great and good effects are apt to be wrought in posterity by means of such figures of their worthy predecessors For those Images do both prolong their memories upon earth which is some honour to them and create a thankfulness in posterity for their virtue and worthy deeds and also inkindle in them an earnest emulation of doing the like noble actions in succeeding ages And thirdly as little can he deny that all these three both innocent and commendable effects are as apt to follow upon the sight of our Lord and his holy Saints Apostles Martyrs Confessors Virgins whose Images only are regarded by the Church Catholicks not only believe but experimentally perceive that such representations do quicken in them from age to age the
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
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