Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A33124
|
An account of Dr. Still.'s late book against the Church of Rome together with a short postil upon his text.
|
J. V. C. (John Vincent Canes), d. 1672.
|
1672
(1672)
|
Wing C426; ESTC R18260
|
35,205
|
79
|
And of the same braâ—en statue of Christ our Lord write also Theophilact Damascenus and several others And here we may take notice by the way that charity devotion set up statues to our Lord but apostasy malice pulls them down And whether Dr. 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 relâ—cks 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 Chrâ—stian 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 applied to his own face and sent to King Abagarus who requested his picture write Evagrius Metaphrastes and others Of another image of Jesus Christ made by Nicodemus which being ignominiously crucified by the Jews wrought many wonderous miracâ—es we have a solemn testimony of Athanasius cited in the foâ—rth 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 furious 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 When children in obedience and duty to their parents spitting upon their effigies said as they were taught to say I renounce the devil and all his works When all the people flâ—cked together in all places to tear down Churches and Chappels and private oratories in houses with a Now boys we are free men let us eat drink and play for to morrow we shall dye No more duty of any our daily prayers no more fasting no more vows no more troublesome adoration upon our knees no more pining meditations no more pennance no more restitution no more priest no more altar no more cross or holy rood no more Peter and Paul to be seen no more languishing memories of Saints no more obedience to the erring Church no more self-examination no more conscience scruples c. Those times indeed were mad enough But now people as newly awaked from wine begin to be wiser and look more soberly about them Even Denmark and Holland consider now in cold blood the many sad mischiefs they acted in hot nor is our own Countrey wholly ignorant of the irreparable ruins of those mad times However our Doctor will not have his sport spoiled nor yet his game stopt Punchienella though Bartholmew fair be ended may be acted still either in Lincolns Infields or Chairing cross or any where else both now and then and seven years hence It will be still new to some body He may also know that King James a wise and learned Prince in the year 1617. gave order that the pictures of Saints should be set up in his Chappel of Holy-wood house in Edinborough as Spotswood attests in his history of the Church of Scotland And he cannot be ignorant that several times order and command has been given to Protestant people by our English Bishops that they bow and do reverence at the name of Jesus when it s spoken or read in the Câ—uâ—ch Now the name of Jesus and figure of Jesus is all one thing the one of them representing to the ear what the other does to the eye All this he might have considered But his tongue is hot and he must speak although it be against himself and the very Church he justifies as much as it is against the Church he arraignes Indeed his whole discourse is so frivously subtile and subtilely frâ—volous that no Church needs much to heed what he sayes This I know and am câ—â—tain 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 mans confidence collect another book of popish idolatry out of this book of Dr. Still as he gather'd this of his out of Henry Moore Jeremy Taâ—lor 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 write 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 long 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 pleaâ—ure 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 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 Pâ—aenix of divines who only dares to be honest And the mere 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 Preâ—s in August last And before October ended I had finished all my work upon Dr. Stillingfleets Book such-like familiar Commentaries as these upon his first chapter be But in all these six months 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 Drexellius 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 him self 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 FINIS