with so palpably incredible calumnies therein inserted His Account indeed seemes chiefly designed for Vulgar Capacities and therfore he mainly endeavours to captivate their attention and belief with much sophistry and many smooth stories of some Doctors amongst Catholicks whose different Opinions about the Moods of Christian Doctrin which they believe simply as it is delivered them plainly though they Vary in their Explications of Divine Mysteries he makes pass for disagreeing in Articles of Faith of others some who schismatically affected speak the stile of their predominant passions not according to the Religion they received from their Catholick Teachers and are therefore censured by the great Overseers of Christiantâ—y whom nevertheless the Doctor makes to speak the pure sense of the Roman Churches Faith and Piety And of some too whose Judgments guided by the compass of their ambitious and unclean affections driving at gâ—eat Names and Places cause division in the outward Hierarchy and Government of the Church for which neither the Canons of our Faith and Manners gives them any authority nor may it be hoped that either the care or power of our chief Pastors may wholly avoid such Wolves since according to Christ's prophesy scandals will still arise though our Catholick Bishops still oppose themselves against them and yet the Doctor will have these either to be our Church Governors or their actions to be destructive of our Catholick Vnity But all these slights of his are to so little purpose that many sober Protestants has been startled at thâ—se his Cantings and Imputations upon so anâ—iâ—nt and grave a Body of Christians whom their former Teachers ever allowed to be members of Christ's Mystical Body and capable of salvation in their own way of Christian observance Whence as the Cruelty of the old Roman Emperours and Presidents against the Primitive Christians moved many Vnbelievers of those times to embrace the Roman Faith so has the severe Accusations of the Doctor against Catholicks moved many of their Adversaries to a more steddy enquiry into our Catholick Truths to confer more reverently with the Dispensers of the Doctrin of that defamed Religion and oft to conclude somewhat more than ordinary of truth and honesty to be found in that Way which being long since banished this Nation by very severe Laws is still so eagerly arraigned so clamorously cryed down in Press and Pulpit and at any Rate exposed to the severity of those whose Interest passion or dulness has ever since engaged them in its suppression The Doctors whole Account amounts to a pulling down and a setting up first he pulls down the Church of Rome then He sets up his Own he makes Vse of four formidable Engins to overturn that our Catholick Church which your TO KATHOLICO amply examines But surely if the Church of Rome falls all Churches which either received their belief from her or now communicate in faith with her must fall too and thus the Catholick Church and the Communion of Saints an entire Article of the Apostles Creed is on a sudden cancelled Indeed it is so proper to all Church Reformers to pull down Churches and such like Monuments of our forefathers Christian piety suckt in with that faith they originally received from their Roman Apostles that our Natiâ—n has cause enough to bewail the power of thâ—â— Sword of Gospellers in whose sense we may confess The Roman Church in some measure to be no sound Church even no Church at all were their Swords as keen as their Pens and Tongues and as close-laid as Nero once wished His to an Imaginary Neck for we are ever bound to believe each one speaks and writes his own thoughts and hearty wishes The Doctor having endeavour'd to level our Roman Church and not finding One principled according to his own Acephalick passion wherewith to close lays the foundation of his Own properly His Stillingfleet Church Not Roman nor Protestant nor indeed any Church at all for where he leaves neither any constant Rule wherby to square our faith or observance in necessaries not clearly revealed in holy Wriâ—t nor any power to oblige to a conformity in Belief and Practices nor any One Visible Head for our Direction and Communion there can be no Church of Christ but a Babel and Confusion that which evidently follows from the Doctors Own Principles whereunto he pretends the faith of Protestants must be reduced as to the only true Test of its being Christian and Catholick And thus after our long reproaching that Church as Vnprincipled the Doctor in a full Council of his own thoughts assembled in Vertue of his all-truth discerning Spirit synodically pronounces his Anathema's against Vs and publishes Canons of faith to all the Churches of England and will prove it to be One Holy Apostolical and Catholick by such Rules as neither Scripture nor Councels nor Fathers nor any Church ever menâ—â—on'd before nor will ever be solemnly canoniz'd by any Synod of our Englâ—sh Pâ—â—lates however he pretends them to be Protestant wherein we may admire at their silence even by those Rules by which aâ—â—â—elief built on them not borrowed from the Roman Church may be contradictory and will be cleerly resolved not to have One Mark of the true Christian Church even to be no Church at all but a pure Stillingfleet an phantosm His design in forging these his Principles was thence to shew the Protestant Church as Protestant or as it is by Schism separated from the great Catholick Body of Christians to be Positive Vniform and Principled whereas by them it is clearly Negative Confusive and Begs the question in the root of all Briefly thus As for the first the Dr aims directly at the subversion of all traditional Revelation and of an external visible and infallible proponent of divine credibles and of all power obligeing to acceptance of them as such and consequently at the overthrow of all Articles by the Church of Rome allowed and Canonized as truths revealed upon those grounds As for the next his Canons for the interpreting Gods written Revelations are of that Latitude that whoever admits them if he please may disagree with the Doctor and all others and with himself too at different times by virtue of a pretended Personal infallible-all-truth discerning-faculty which he allows all in all fundamentals and superstructures depending on the controverted sense of Gods written Word after a sober enquiry and sincere endeavours however necessary those credibles be to salvation or the framing one Church of many truth-discerning members whether this their enquiry be performed by the working of reason only which in supernatural Truths revives Pelagianism or by a pretended personal divine assistance in regard of each Believer to which every one may as legally pretend and appropriate it to himself by pretence of having used his best means to understand Scripture as the Dr. himself or any other Teacher which is to erect an Acephalick Enthusiasm or Fanaticism And as for the last if it be a legal proof that there
still building and pulling down our opinions Former Catholick Christians practised and we dispute They had a religion fixt we are still seeking one They exercised themselves in good works by the guidance of their holy faith which led them towards them and pressed their duty all these works we by our new way evacuate They had the substance of religion in their hearts we the text in our lips They had nothing to do but conform their lives to Gods will all our endeavour is to apply Gods word to our own faction Let there be no longer a mistake the question is not whether people are to have Gods word or no but whether that word consist in the letter left to the peoples disposal or in the substance and meaning of it urgently imposed upon people for their practice And we must still and ever remember that it is not Gods will or word but the letter of scripture onely which makes here-ticks this may be depraved by men unto their own destruction that cannot So that when we come to a conclusion of these things there is no such Catholick doctrine faith or religion amongst us which prescribes any of these thing put here in his third chapter upon the Roman Church For first our Catholick way is so far from keeping Gods word from the people that it has been the only great endeavour of our Church and pastors in all times and places to derive Gods word and will in such a manner unto people that they may observe and keep it however they will not permit the letter promiscuously unto all hands without a knowledge of their ability and stayedness even as they do not suffer all sorts of men to come to holy communion without a license and assurance of their lives and persons Secondly that our efficacy of sacraments depends upon meer administration without any preparation of mind is so false that every Catholick boy and girl arrived to years of discretion will hiss at it Thirdly that we pray in an unknown tongue and know not what we say is a calumny onely proper for the wise men of Gotam Fourthly that prayers for one another after this life ended do hinder our own holiness and devotion in this present life is a paradox fit onely for discourse in a tavern or coffee-house over cups Fifthly that our sacrament of penance with interiour contrition sufficeth us without any amendment of life or purpose towards it is a slander which the doctor could not have vented with applause on any other ground but Billingsgate He took it seems more pleasure to shew an evil wit than a good candid nature which is a perfection more becoming him and if I be not mistaken by too much charity more apparent in his courteous conversation with his neighbours than in his written Romances or books made against the Church of Rome which are so false and injurious that they cannot but hurt as well our Protestant neighbours who read and believe them as poor innocent Catholicks who dislike and suffer them And now dear Sir I bid you farwel the second time FINIS ΤΩ ΚΑΘΟΛΙΚΩ FANATICISM I Am now Sir arrived to the Doctors merriment a merriment peculiarly prophane which has gained him much applause He endeavours in his 4. Chapter to declare and prove that the Church of Rome is fanatical founded and supported on fanaticism A merry theme and fit for a terrae filius And I suppose here that he means by the Church of Rome not any material building of stone and morter either the floar or walls windows pillars steeple or weather-cock nor yet any men or women boys or girls in England Ireland France or other countreys but the Catholick faith and religion protest all over the world by such as we now in England call Papists For his readers both Catholick and Protestant do understand him so to mean And this religion and faith he proves by such arguments to be fanatical as might infer fanaticism indifferently upon all Kingdoms of the earth and all mankind thus he speaks There were two men and as many more women in distant times and places who pretended revelations about the unspotted purity of the blessed Virgin Mary Therefore is the Catholick Church and faith fanatical Secondly one St. Catherin of Sena is said to have had shining wounds in her body and to smell the stench of lecherous men therefore is their faith and Church fanatical Thirdly St. Gregory and St. Bede write of some apparitions therefore is their religion and faith fanatical Fourthly one Bishop appointed a day to be holiday another built a Church and both were done by revelation therefore is their faith and religion fanatical Fifthly St. Bennet St. Francis St. Dominick St. Romewal and St. Bruno founders of chief religious orders among them had many symptoms of madmen as to prophesie to see angels to neglect their bodies to be beaten and scoft at by men therefore is their religion and Church fanatical Sixthly about four hundred years ago there rose a pernicious heresie which spread far and caused much disturbance before they could silence and suppress it 〈◊〉 therefore is their Church and religion fanatical Seventhly St. Ignatius founder of the Society of Jesuits was such another fool as St. Francis and laboured and suffered much before he could get his order and rule approved by the Bishop therefore is the Roman Church fanatical Eightly one man among them of late printed a spiritual book wherein were some words and phrases unusual and hardly intelligible therefore is the religion and Church of Rome fanatical Ninthly three men amongst them in this last age uttered blasphemous words against the honour and prerogative of Kings who are Gods Vicegerents upon earth therefore is Catholick religion fanatical All these hollow voices are to be heard and seen in this his Bartholmew Booth for the recreation of such as love it issuing unto our great wonderment onely from the belly of one man breaking wind in the midst of it § 1. Let us see then how all this put together does prove the Church of Rome whose emblem it is intended to be fanatical It is an easie thing to act upon a stage the gravest and soberest man alive in a drunken posture Wit without honesty and confidence without conscience can pervert and turn things upside down at pleasure But a little reflection will set all straight again The Catholick Church and religion here represented as fanatical first it has subsisted by the confession of our first reforming Protestants even from the Apostles days or very little after spread all over Europ Asia and Africa Secondly it has been imbraced and owned by Kings and Princes honourable Lawyers learned Physicians stout Captains subtil Philosophers people innumerable as the very sands on the sea shore Thirdly it made and framed the Laws both of our own Countrey and every Christian Kingdom Fourthly it built the many goodly Churches all over the world even those here wherein now Protestants the right
one and the same and has no other superior Church on earth either to resist or observe But yet does this man go nimbly about his work without either fear or scruple For first revelations have been countenanced in that Church One of an Abbat in a storm another of St. Norbert of St. Gertrude of St Briget St. Joan St. Catherin of Sena about the Conception and these revelations were contradictory to one another one affirming the immaculate conception the other denying it Oho is this the first proof of fanaticism in the Church A very pretty one surely He has already forgotten his own definition of fanaticism For here is no mention made either of any new way of religion invented or of resisting authority under pretence of it But all that he esteems whimsical or fanciful stuff must it seems be called fanatical But can any vain fancies dreams or visions of two or three who profess a religion prove that religion to be fanatical Yes will he say if they be countenanced But first they might be countenanced and yet not as any part of their religion Secondly how does he prove they were countenanced because some Doctors maintained one of those contradictory revelations and some the other till the whole business was silenced Thus he tells his story But is this to countenance any thing I think not nor yet can any one in reason think it It is moreover certainly believed by all Catholicks in the world that the blessed Virgin Mother of our Lord Jesus was ever most pleasing to God and immaculate in all her ways even from her first Beeing and this is not questioned by any The dispute in Schools yet undecided is only about the Moode Tense of it whether that her Sanctity were in her from the beginning by way of preservation from the blemish of sin for every conceivable Instant of her being in her passive Conception as Scotus teaches in his School or whether it were by way of Sanctification after the first real instant of her Beeing wherein as other Children of Adam by natural progation she was lyable to Original sin as the followers of St. Thomas affirm And this was the matter of those their Revelations or Dreams according to the pious opinion They conceived of our Lady's purity These of their Angelical Doctors contemplations But how does this prove that our general Faith wherein they all lived and dyed is Enthusiastick There be Dreamers in England good store and those that dream waking too and yet may not the Church of England be called Fanatick for that Fond contradictory fancies of some make not the general Religion unto whose guidance they are to submit when they come to be questioned any ways in fault Indeed the Doctors of these Schools as they have been too earnest in the maintaining their School Curiosities to the admiration of innocent Believers not at all concern'd in their subtilities So were some of them strongly perswaded about the said Revelations or dreams for the honour each of their Schools and the positions they teach but our Catholick Bishops who heed Religion only concern not themselves in School Niceties but in plain and solid Faith It is the property of such as are meer School-men to reverence their School dictates oft to the prejudice of grace and charity That these women should pretend Revelations about a School point was either the strength of their own fancy working on the way they had heard or the weakness of their guides It matters not whether for Saints are not Saints in every point of their lives flesh and blood will sprout Imbecilities until their perfection comes And how hard it is to discern the Original of Visions which of them is divine which humane and perhaps an evil Motion we have examples enough in holy Writ amongst the Prophets and Sons of Prophets When Josaphat and Achal Kings of Judah and Israel were to make War on Ramoth Gilead all the chief Prophets were called together even four hundred of them to give their Counsel All of these pretended revelations from God and yet speak contrary things especially Micheas Zedechias were at open defiance one with another about the truth of their Visions And yet all this made not any proof that the Religion of the Hebrews was Fanatick But he that wil read more of these theological subtilties may see it if he please in the works of that learned Divine Franciscus à Sancta Clara a Catholick Doctor especially in his book De Schismate his other called Paralipomena philosophica and a third called Religio Philosophi in a more ample and solid manner there discust I have now said enough of this business and something more may chance to add by and by when occasion offers § 4. Saint Catherin had her five shining wounds in her bands feet and side insensible of all pains in her extasies and could smell stinking vitious souls as St. Philip Nerius did afterwards which is one degree above the enthusiasm of a Quaker I know not how many degrees it is above the enthusiasm of a Quaker sure I am it is far below the fanaticism of Doctor Stillingfleet who talks at this wild rate What is all this if it were true to the definition of fanaticism and where does the fanaticism lie is not this man strangely frantick himself who cannot distinguish between peoples religion and the accidenâ—â— that do befall them Were these wounds and Noses any part of their Creed Although the Doctor have no such nose yet may he have such a stink and though he want the wounds he may have fairy nips that are as bad If St. Catherin were so estranged from sensual things and so absorpt in God as is here related God be thanked for it if she was not I can believe in God nevertheless and my religion is still the same I did once read a story of a young man in Hungary who flying for fear at the coming in of the Turks into the adjoining woods lived there so long estranged from all human diet that all his friends and neighbours after the Turks departure could not take him till he chanced to slip into a deep pitfall set on purpose to catch him The reason was as he afterward related because his smell became so refined and pure by his living in the woods on the wild and thin provision there that he smelt men a mile or two off before they could come near him And this story I judg to be true as well as that of St Catherin who had heavenly helps beside And if Dostor Still unacquainted with such things esteem them whimsical let him think so What them I do not It is but the various judgment of two petty Doctors My religion however is still the same solid faith it was unless the pain I have now actually in my side must give the Church of God a pleurisie § 5. Visions and apparitions have been made use of by them to prove Doctrines that were before
have it thought that he is victorious in his main design although indeed and truth it belong nothing at all to it But let me not stop his carreere If any such figure of the Deity were inconsistent in the old Law much more in the new where we are commanded to worship God in spirit and truth O uncontroulable consequence arising from premisses most true No man can or dare deny all this Methinks I love him here for his reason and cannot but grieve it should be all spilt in vain so pure it is and precious A little more of this while he is in a good mood It seems more rational to worship God in the Sun and Moon which have more of God in them than a Picture has and to say our prayers to the Sun and Moon than to any Image Seems so Sir It is certainly more rational what should we doubt of And what a pitty is it there should be none to be found who worship God in a Picture either ideally or presentially none who say their prayers to a picture that this great blow of his might not beat the Aire to the indangering of his elbows Saint Paul testifies that the Godhead is not like either to gold or silver or stone Good St. Paul always said well and his testimony is good at all times and especially now when it hits so pat with the wiser Heathens There be many Churches now in England which have since our reformation the Tetragram name of God written upon the walls within side in golden letters Unto those men who did this it would not seem altogether impertinent to tell them that the Godhead is not like to gold silver or stone But to such as use only the effigies of our Lord according to his humanity and his holy Apostles and Martyrs what a pitty it is it should be impertinent and wholly lost Let him speak on some more of his truths Germanus Patriark of Constantinople says expresly that Christians make no representation of the invisible Deity and St. Damascene affirms it madness to go about it Marry God have mercy o' their souls for this their express saying Catholicks would desire no better a testimony for themselves if they wanted any then this of those two great Catholick Doctors that no such repreâ—entation entation they have and none they go about to have O but he hopes that all this being true will make strongly against the Church of Rome And will it so I have heard say there be a thousand Churches in Rome which are all Churches of Rome equally Which of them all are concerned in this talk that their walls may confute him But he means Catholick people perhaps oh O then all is well they are safe enough and unhurt by all this which is but their own doctrine and faith At least he has by these fair shreds of truth farced up a dozen pages in his book And he hopes that his protestant reader will believe it all to be most pertinent and apposite discourse against papishes though it be nothing less And if they do so think he has his end a happy Man no doubt § 8. Moses forbad saith he the making of any graven thing and the word which Moses uses in that his law for a graven thing is general and signifies not an idol only as Papists say but any picture likeness image or representation as Moses himself speaks either in heaven above or in earth below or waters under the earth pesel themurah eikon glypton sculptile any kind of thing that may be exprest either with the pencil or graving tool Believe me Sir if this be true it will undo all our Painters who come flocking hither into England as the only thriving place for them out of Holland Germany France and Italy too and here fill the Land with pesels themunahs eikons gâ—yptons sculptile's and any things they can express with their pencils for our delight Dolphins whales and other fish of the Sea biâ—ds of the Aire Beasts Flowers Woods gallant men and fair women all that ever Moses forbad to be exprest Nay I have seen my self in a Protestant Church Moses himself painted on the walls with glittering hornes on his head and a pair of law tables in his hand But it may be Law-makers do exemp themselves at least some Protestants may interpret as they seem to do that Moses forbad to make the figure of Jesus Christ but not his own No man in England scruples to have any of these eikons no not the Doctor himself notwithstanding this law of Moses so expresly contrary to them all no man doubts to set any painter or graver on work And yet must still this Law be cast in the teeth of Catholicks as transgressors of it For Gods sake why is St. Mary Magdalen in her penitential weeds upon her knees with beads in her hand and eyes all blubbered and swoln with tears more against the law of Moses than one of our delicate Paragons of beauty in her shining dress lips of coral and sparkling eyes O but Catholicks worship them Sâ—r this word in the sense and meaning of protestants is as great a falshood as was ever uttered by man For Catholicks neither have nor can have any other relative esteem of any Picture than what they have to the penitential works they represent or to the worth and piety of the Persons And an absolute esteem of the Picture this is measured out only by the Materials and artifice of the Painter according to which one Picture shall be worth five hundred pounds and another representing the same thing not worth five shillings And can we believe that our Protestant young Gentlemen have no veneration at all to our beauties set thus in their Majesty nor no kind of affections rising in their hearts towards them Yea ten to one more of ill affections and god wot greater then any good ones we can have to our crucisied Jesus in our way of piety And the difference indeed is only this that our reverence and affection is towards holy persons and unto an imitation of their piety hope patience constancy and charity Their 's to a concupiscence of flesh and eyes This and nothing but this if truth may be spoken makes them so wrathful and furious against our Catholick pictures Satan hates Jesus Christ and therefore inflames them to tear down his memories and representations but he loves pride of life and those portractures must stand that advance this He is pleased with that which feeds concupiscence of eyes and concupiscence of flesh brings him in the disciples which Jesus Christ loses Moses did forbid Jews who were travelling with him towards Palestine and idolatrous Nation to make to themselves that is to say on their own heads without warrant of the Synagogue or in imitation of the Pagan rites any of the idolatrous images there and elsewhere to be met withal or any similitude at all least seduced thereby they leave their own God and religion to
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
beloved memory of our crucified Lord and all his blessed followers that they incite in their hearts a thankfulness for so many their good deeds still redounding to our good and that they kindle a desire of imitating them so often as they behold those virtuous faces once Pilgrims as we now are and Believers with us even as they imitated our Lord by a strange force and courage trampling Sin and Satan under their feet And thus by Images we do reverence and honour Christ our Lord and his holy Saints with a respect and veneration due unto them each one in his place and dignity Nay one yet further good use do we guided by our Faith and Religion still make of those pious representations For being assured that our Saints in heaven do offer up their incense of prayers in behalf of their Brethren on earth we seldom cast our eyes upon their figures but desire in heart at least to reap some benefit thereby partakers of their heavenly intercession Thus we do But does Dr. Stilling fleet speak of these things or unto these things or against any of these things no not one word Nor would any custom of ours or belief or doctrine of the Church have brought in any of the contents which make up his first Chapter wherein our Image-idolatry is declared and confuted by him Wherefore laying out his charge against us in a phrase of ambiguous words industriously conâ—râ—ved he brings in thereby all that talk of his which nothing at all concerns us aâ—â— yet sounds aâ— if it did This Sir is his inâ—â—nceâ—â—cy Papists saith he worship God by Images the Church of Rome worships God in Images and therefore are they Idolaters This is his charge very ambiguous as all men may see and of an uncertain interpretation It sounds in a direct sence as if Catholicks had some representations of the eternal Deity either made by themselves or some other way conâ—â—â—ghed unto them by which and in which they worship God Thus chief Magicians pâ—â—cking their finger let the blood drop in a pan of â—urning coals and when the sinoak â—rises down they fall and worship thâ—ir wâ—ckâ—d Familiar whose face then appears beâ—ore them in a Looking-glass set aforehand for that puâ—pose on their Altar And some such way â—â—ay the Reader conceive that we worship God in Images as they do their Familiar Demon. And again when it is said that we worship God by Images he may as well imagine that seâ—ting our Images a fire we offer them to God as a Burnt-offering or some other such like way worship God thereby For this is the direct and connatural meaning of the words And in this direct â—ence the Doctor proceeds and brings in thereby all the contents of that his first Chapter Papists saith he worship God by Images and in Images which is idolatry and a fond idolatry too For such a worship cannot terminate upon God because he hath forbid it For can any representation of the inviâ—â—ble Deâ—y be made as even the wiser Heathens have ackâ—â—wledged An Image of God must needs be below God and unbeseeming his glory For which cause Moses forbids it S. Paul disowns it learned Christian Doctors abhorre it This was the fault of Aaron the fault of Jeroboam the fault of all the Heathens who worshipped God in their Images or Idols Thus our Doctor speaks and this is all he speaks quite besides his business and our Catholick custom For our Images are the representations of our Lord Christ born and crucified for us and of his holy Apostles and Martyrs and other his renowned followers And although we believe Christ our Lord to be God yet the Image of Christ and the Image of God are two different things as all men know This then is the reason why he words his charge against us in that manner he does with much insincerity For if he had only charged us with that which we only do namely that we make Images of Christ and his blessed Saints or that we worship and honour them thereby this would not have brought in those many materials of his long discourse nor would he have had any thing thereof to have said against us And surely we can only honour them by Images whose Images we set up for our use as 〈◊〉 men know well enough And if he will infâ—â—â— upon another reflected act because 〈◊〉 think we do well thereby in order to God thâ—◠〈◊〉 therefore worship God by them 〈…〉 them this is meerly to trifle For thus wâ—â—ay be said and that more properly 〈◊〉 â—â—ly too that we worship God by the Kâ—â—◠〈◊〉 in the King or other Magistraâ—◠〈…〉 us by God Almighty for our go◠〈◊〉 which in that sence is most certainly true Nay we may as well be charged to worship God by and in our Bread and Butter Beef and Mutton which we eat giving God thanks thereby This I say is the Doctors inunâ—â—â—ity totally blameable in Treatises of Contâ—oversies that concern Religion which exact a proper direct and plain expression And it is in vain for him to reply that we use also the representations of Father Son and Holy Ghost For we have none of these as they are in themselves but as they have appeared unto us the Holy Ghost in the form of a Dove the Son in the form of man and Father as he founds to us under that notion in our ear which are still no representations of the invisible Deity of which the Doctor speaks And he may remember too that the present Church of England which he pretends to defend allows and uses all these Images also even that of God the Father which many of our Catholick Prelates have excepted against and endeavoured to suppress however some others amongst them have thought withall that such a figure might well enough be permitted because what may be represented to the ear may in the same manner be represented to the eye also Thus much Sir of the Doctors insincerity hitherto And what pretty Sophistical tricks he uses afterward you may see in due time and place You may note only for the present that after his imagined overthrow of our Christian Images he now in his second Chapter invades our antient Sacrifice typified by Melchisedek his bread and wine which he calls the Host just according to the first method of the furious Reformation which first battered our Church-windows and then slurred down the Altar-table Host-Idolatry and Saint-Idolatry The adoration of the Host is a grand piece of Idolatry in the Roman Church Nor will it suffice them here to plead that they believe Christ to be in the Eucharist on the same divine motives they believe Christ to be God and that they may therefore worship him there for if there were a revelation of his presence there yet is there not the same command of worshipping him there as is of his person Let all the Angels of God adore and again all must honour the Son as they do
his own that people may hear and read in both places not what Catholicks do but what they do not and yet so confidently charged upon them as if it were their right And thus he makes sport for himself but marrs none very careful not to obstruct but set open a way for his prattle which is a pretty piece of wit if it had a little honesty to make it rellish § 3. I do not perceive the Author to be so jolly in this his second Chapter as in his first Nor does he argue so positively against this great work of Christian Religion no less solid and certain then Christianity it self as he did before against the ceremonious use of an Image which Catholicks heed no otherways then ornaments of their Religion fruitful in so many sweet fragrant Roses and Lillies of their Martyrs and other blessed Saints And therefore Dr. St. winks himself that his reader may think here is no truth to be seen Full of doubts he is that Catholicks may be thought doubtful What can they show what can they urge for this their worship The authority of the Roman Church that is little worth A speedy quick and dextrous dispatch Catholick tradition where is it why do they not shew it who ever heard of it Poor man he cannot see wood for trees nor London perhaps in the midst of Cheapside except some body point at it The numerous volumns that have set forth this Catholick tradition as eminent as clear as universal as Christianity it self he now remembers them not no not any one of them can he now call to mind to lead him out of the maze he is in Will they pretend Scripture all that is disputed that is otherwise intérpreted If he continue in this his perplexity he will turn Atheist by and by For there is no one Article of Christian faith or Scripture that speaks it but has been disputed denied and otherwise interpreted What can Scripture saith he do without Councils and what are Councils but fallible mistaking businesses A sad plight the man is in but it is on his own accord and free will that his reader may imagine Catholicks who are all the world over in a peaceable possession of this their faith to be in the same pickle too He simply conceits Catholicks to have their faith to pick up some where and he cannot possibly tell where they should glean it with any assurance or quiet at least he would have it thought they cannot Bellarmin saith he declares by convincing arguments that Christ is God and to be worshipped but what Church what tradition what Counsel what Fathers tell us any such thing of the Host Alas poor dark man we must not then ever think to pick our Religion out of Bellarmin it seems And so must needs be in the same case with those Christians who lived before Bellarmins time that is to say either to have our Religion already without Bellarmins help or to seek it But where had Bellarmin yet a Child where had he his Faith before he wrote any thing surely not out of Bellarmins books It is a wonder the Dr. thinks not of this to help him a little to his sound sences But he is in his extasie and will be in it still And he tells us in this his rapture that Bellarmin proved by convincing arguments that Christ is God and to be worshiped but who ever said the like of the Host We know and remember well enough that the same Bellarmin who proves so laboriously that Christ is God declares also no less effectually in a whole treatise of the same volume of controversies both our Lords Divine presence in the Eucharist and our supream veneration love and honour there due unto him This we know and this the Dr. did himself know also before he drave himself into these his fained Apoplexies wherein he has indeed some imperfect glimpses of it even now that we may give him his due but the whole treatise in Bellarmin seems to him now at this his distance but as a small black mote such as an Eagle may happly appear to us flying in the Clouds five miles high above our heads an atome a little on this side nothing and therefore not worth speaking of And by this means he goes on glibly in his extacies and exclamations unto the end What ground have Papists what ground have they for this their worship Scripture Tradition Councels Fathers Church Reason where are they what are they worth who ever saw them why are they not shown Thus the good man raves Although all people before this last and worst age who ever in any place bore the name of Christians both Latin and Greek Bishopricks who filled up Europe and all the rest every where Armenians Habassins Maronites Jacobites Muscovites Melthites had all of them this one solemn adoration of God in the Eucharist as the great work of Christianity although antient Fathers especially the Grecians have left more record of it than any other parcel of Christian belief and practice although many great laborious and learned volumnes have been set forth in this last age both in France Germany and England whereby that Catholick piety is so demonstrated that none who considers things in earnest can refrain to acknowledg it yet does Dr. St. in his deep extasy forget all this and cryes out who ever said it who ever proved it who ever profest it And he hopes his Reader who is seldom wiser than his book will answer to his question and say No body No body Sir you are in the right and Papists are meer Fools and Blockheads § 4. The drift of this Chapter is to shew that we can neither believe our Lords presence in the Eucharist nor do any homage to God in him there figured according to his own solemn Institution as Crucified among us unto our reconciliation and peace And truly his discourse here tending thereunto is all of it so extraordinary slight that one cannot tell whether himself be serious or that he do indeed take us all for Mushromes so soft and foolish that we will be carryed away at his pleasure by any thing or indeed by nothing Suppose saith he we have the same Divine Revelation of Christs presence in the Eucharist as of the Divinity of his Person yet can we not possibly worship here as there because there it is said let all the Angels adore him but we have no command to worship the Host As though one and the same command Let all the Angels adore him would not serve indifferently both in Heaven and Earth both for Angels and men where ever he is present The Divine revelation of his presence needs no further command to ingage our worship nor is that said command Let all men honour the Son as the Father and let all the Angels worship him determined to any one place or to any one mode of his presence St. Paul worshipped our Lord in the fields of Damascus where he met him
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
owners excluded by violence do preach Fifthly it set out the glebe land and tyths whereon they live Sixthly it founded our Corporations raised our famous Universities and furnished their Libraries with books Seventhly it has preicribed and delivered us the forms not of the Sacraments onely but of any sort either of ecclesiastical or civil instalments Eighthly it has triumphed over Jews and Pagans notwithstanding their power and furious opposition by Gods blessing and her own innocence prudence and constancie and laid asleep the very heresies that have risen up against her in all ages out of her own bowels All these things that I may speak no more are not the works of fanaticism they are not the properties power or gestures of fanaticks Fanaticism rises up suddenly and dies like a mushrom utters a fond defiance and so vanishes destroys but builds nothing chatters a little like a moon calf and is seen no more § 2. That our Doctor may proceed somewhat doctor-like he tells us in the begining of this his Chapter what he means by fanâ—ticism By it saith he I understand an enthusiastick way of religion or resisting authority under pretence of religion This is his desiartion of it But whether it be one definition or two it is not easie to say Indeed and truth it is no definition at all but onely an obscure dark wording of things so purposely ordered that he may put what he pleases in the circle of fanaticism besides himself It is saith he an enthusiastick way of religion But what is enthusiastick what does way mean in these our affairs and what is a way of religion A definition ought to be plain and familiar without either amphibology or trope and more intelligible than the thing defined This is not so Enthusiasm in Greek is but the same thing as Inspiration Were then the Apostles and Prophets who were inspited and taught that their inspired way of religion the fanaticks here spoken of or no Secondly what is meant by way Is it a way chalked out for a man by his just and legal guids or a way invented by himself This is a main business and perhaps the very essence of fanaticism and yet it is not here exprest Thirdly what is a way of religion Is it religion it self or some certain fanciful gestures in the exercise of it or some odd mode in defending it or some peculiar manner of applying it unto the conduct of our lives A clergy man may either in a pulpit or at an altar have many simple wild gestures and yet be a sound Christian for all that But is such a one to be understood here to have an enthusiastick way of religion He who makes it a part of his religion to defame his innocent neighbours wrongfully persuading people that he does God good service therein is this man a fanatick and yet he practises a very mad way of religion To side first with our English prelacie and when it is overborn by unlawful violence to turn unto them who overthrew it and as soon as it is reestablished to come back again to it is this fanaticism I am sure it is a mad way of religion He that disables his own Protestant Bishops in one book being a Protestant himself and in another inveighs heavily against some Jesuists for resisting their Papist Bishops whom himself also does not approve is this man a fanatick yea or no And yet he follows and treads a very strange mad way of religion So that obscure general and tropical words are so far from keeping him out that they include rather and hem in Dr. Still himself and wholly inclose him in his own circle of faâ—aticism Again his other part or other whole definition of fanaticism A resisting authority under a pretence of religion is obscure enough too For there be many sorts of resisting and many sorts of authority and many sorts of pretences and many religions pretended and yet not all of them fanatick All Protestants in their first reformation resisted all authority of the whole Catholick world both ecclesiastical and civil and that under pretence of religion a new way of religion invented by themselves opposite to the Catholick way wherein they had all been born and bred Are all these and their successors unto this very day fanaticks or no He will say no perhaps because they had good reason to do it But do not Quakers whom Dr Still speaks openly to be fanaticks say also that they have good reason to withstand and desert our Protestant English Church O but no body says so but themselves Neither did any but those first Protestâ—nts say they had any reason at all but the whole Catholick world rose up and condemned them So that we have got but little light by this definition of his left wholly in as much obscurity as ever he was himself after he had been puzling among the Schoolmen Truth is we are neither to seek into logick or into dictionaties for the meaâ—ing and signification of fanaticks or fanaticism For the word as it relates to religion here in England is of voluntary imposition never before applied unto any Sects of Christianity till my Lord General Monk used it in Parliament some few years ago to express those men who under pretence of their new invented doctrines contemned and rose up against all authority and waged war and overthrew both Church and State before them unto the utter impoverishing and desolation of the Land These our great General never to be mentioned in England without honour called Fanaticks that is to say mad foolish blasted men who preferring their own instable conceits for they had now fallen and shivered into many Sects before solid obedience unto Church and State rooted up what ever was fixt for the general good of all men and contenting themselves with the pillage of the Land could settle nothing at all themselves either of religion or government in the end These he called Fanaticks And in his great prudence he made choice of that new word upon hopes that every one of these several sects would lay the epither upon his neighbour as indeed they did And amongst these men yea the very chief and ringleaders of them did Mr. Still our Doctor joyn himself And yet does he here in his own little subtilty lay the whole ignominy now upon the Quakers as a burthen for the younger brothers to carry And yet were they hardly born when the work of fanaticism in England was accomplished By all this we may easily discern what fanaticism means But yet we must notwithstanding content our selves with the definition he has given us so far as it can bear any fixt or certain sense and so proceed § 3. The Church of Rome saith he is both ways fanatical both in an enthusiastick way of religion and resisting authority A man would wonder how this charge should be made good of a Catholick Church whose religion is ever settled and delivered by tradition from generation to generation still
as those related by S. Gregory and S. Bede to prove purgatory appearances of a child to prove transubstantiation of a black man blotting sins out of a book when a thief did pennance to prove confession Very good Then were not those parcels of faith brought in by those visions And a whimsical proof by any Minister to declare and justifie his text does not infer that divine text to be therefore Enthusiasm He told us before like a Doctor that fanaticism was some new enthusiastick way of Religion or resisting authority under pretence of it Where is all this here Is fanaticism now some other thing nothing but a weak proof whether Dr. Still himself hath ever used in his Sermons any such proof as this is when he hath discoursed of the souls superviving after this life ended I cannot tell But I am confident that if he hath he did not therefore think himself a fanatick nor yet any others who heard him speak it I should if he had either reason or apparition for any thing he utters in this Book of his think the better both of him and it The best is that all these apparitions here related were first written by venerable and grave men whose words are of greater authority than Stillingfleet-derisions § 6. They not onely prove Doctrines bus even define things meerly by private revelations Do they so What are these things so defined What is the reason he changes his phrase and says not as we might have expected he should that they not onely prove doctrines that were before but define doctrines also upon private revelations He is wary in this and calls them things not doctrines But yet hopes still that his Reader will so understand as if they defined doctrines as well as proved them upon private revelations He has a multitude of these little tricks which I must let pass But what things do they define Let us hear them Pope Vrban the fourth determined the festival of corpus Christi day upon a revelation made to some Nuns in Leeds Pope Boniface the feast of the archangel Michael upon another made to the Bishop of Siponto And why saith he should we be told of fanaticism so often Do we found our religion upon any such visions Here we have now the things defined upon private revelations onely a couple of holy days or rather one holy day and one Church built upon a hill and neither of them upon private revelations The appearance of an Angel which caused the building of the Church was solemn and publick But corpus Christi day was instituted apart or rather transferred from Maunday thursday in holy week untill the Paschal festival were ended because in the holy week other affairs of piety towards the passion of our Lord unknown to Dr. Stillingfleet do so take up all that time that people cannot then sufficiently celebrate the institution of the Eucharist as they would and ought to do This is the known reason why corpus Christi day was instituted to be kept apart the thursday after Trinity And if some Nuns had any vision that so it ought to be what then It onely follows hence that the vision they had proved true and not that any part of Catholick religion was built upon such visions For all the religion or faith that is in this business was before that institution of the holy day A circumstance of time or place for the exercise of religion though it be defined is not to define religion it self The real presence or corpus Christi was believed and loved and reverenced long before Pope Urban and the Angels of God honoured before Pope Boniface was born Why saith Mr. Still should we hear so often of fanaticism Do we found our religion upon any such visions And who gentle Doctor does found any relgion upon them Do you call the building of a Church or institution of a holy day a founding of religion And who tells you so often of fanaticism You cast it indeed upon one another here in England Presbyterians Anabaptists and other such like I know no body else who tell you of it But if you will have me speak what I now think all the whole protestant reformation is fanaticism to me even in the most rigorous and strictest sense § 7. Their religious orders even the chief among them Benedictins Carthusians Dominians Franciscans and Jesuits were all instituted by enthusiastick persons upon the credit of their visions and revelations so much hath fanaticism contributed to their support Now this man blows upon us a little more nearly than hitherto and yet he blasts but his own soul thereby For first the Catholick Church is truly and properly supported by Jesus Christ her founder and divine Master Then by the innocence purity and powerfulness of her faith Next to this by the care and vigilancy of Apostles venerable Bishops and holy Priests who made unblameable thereby in themselves are industrious to teach and exhort and see this holy religion observed and put in practise by others committed to their charge And then also by religious people and all those good Christians who do earnestly heed those heavenly dictates of our Lord to fulfill them so distributing the time of this their short life that now they practise one good thing and then another as occasion offers till all justice be fulfilled keeping themselves unspotted of the world So that religious people do no otherways support the Church but by their studious observance of her holy laws and counsels unless the venerable Bishops do call forth some virtuous choice men amongst them for their help This is most certain Secondly no less certain it is that the founders of religious orders were both pious and wise persons and several ways proved to be so by their miraculous and innocent lives before their rule was allowed of Nor were any of them accepted as this man speaks of by the credit of their own visions Thirdly although the Benedictins and others here mentioned were very eminently religious in the West part of the Church Yet it is not so certain that they are the chief of all religious that either are or have been in Church in any place or age Very eminent were the orders founded by St. Austin that venerable Doctor and Bishop in Africa the Monks of St. Martin a Bishop in France those of St. Malachy in Ireland the religious of St. Basil of St. Pacomius of Cassianus St. Jerom and several others in the East and South part of the Church Very eminent without all doubt were those many religious Societies whom St. Jerom and others testifie to have spread themselves all over Syria Armenia Persia Ethiopia Asia and all the northern parts even amongst the Goths and Dacians before the fourth age of the Christian Church Very eminent were the religious institutes which were all over the countrey we now inhabit in the Britons time long before our forefathers the Saxons came in upon them under the rule of St. Columba
he does neither § 14. From hence the author proceeds to a new argument fit as he thinks to prove the Church of Romes fanaticisme which indeed so exalts her honour that it proves her the only powerful Judg that does suppress it He tells us then a long and punctual story of some disturbances and heresies that rose about three hundred Years ago in the Christian world who were the chief authors when and where they first appeared how far they spread what tumults they caused what Catholick Doctours opposed them and what Pope at last censured and silenced them And this was the heresy of the Fratricelli Begwini and such like others And he is so exact in his narration that he spends almost forty pages in it thereby to daz'e the Reader and lead him on so far that he may not reflect upon the impertinence of it For heresies will rise and the first uprise of them must needs be amongst some who lived thitherto in the Catholick Church And if they will not hear and be quiet as the rest are they will be censured in the end And this was all the business here But the Doctour twits at the Pope for that he delayed his censure so long still favouring the Fryars amongst whom there were some great sticklers in that madness Surely Sir it is a part not of prudence only but justice too in any judg to hear all parties speak and to defer an extreme sentence till he see where it is most due And sometimes the commotion is so disorderly wild or ambâ—guous that true prudence will doubt whâ—ther punishment be to be inflâ—cted on this or thâ—t side or perhaps on either until aâ— least it appear so seasonable that it may do good But thus I say If theâ—e men â—ere named Almarious Parma Oliva Peter John Geraldus Sagarellus Dulcinus Hermanus and other Fratricelli were fanaticks or their opinions fanaticisme then did the Church justly and prudently so to silence them that they are now no more extant in the world If they were not fanaticks then all the Doctours narration is but a tale of Tom Thumb I can tell the Doctour of another fanaticisme far greater and of more dismal consequence than this which rose up in the Catholick Church but one hundred Years ago begun promoted and spread over half Europe by Martin Luther an Augustin Fryar John Calvin a Priest and as I think a Cannon too Swing in s who I am sure was both Carolstade an arch-deacon in Wittenburg Bucer a Dominican Fryar Lismanin a franciscan Richerius a Carmelite Alciat and David George from Transilvania Valentin Gentile from Italy Castalio from France Peter Martyr and Ochyn from Florence Alasco from Poâ—and Bâ—za from Burgundy Servetus from Spain Melanchton from Germany as if the whole earth had conspired to cast forth her dead unto the infection and ruin of mankind These had been all Catholick hitherto and Catholick Priests too And what dâ—d they now hold forth and what did they pretend and teach a perfect fanaticisme here described by the Doctour and both the waies of it both a new enthusiastick way of Religion and a resisting of authority under pretence of it They would have now no more obedience to their Prelates which is the very essence of fanaticisme no obligation to the religious duties wherein they had hicherto been trained no respect to Church laws or rules of discipline fasts or other observances The best works were sins Restitution superfluous Monasteries and religious retirement superstitious Gods law impossible to be kept No oblation no altar no priesthood any more And such negatives innumerable This was their new religion the maddest that ever was broched upon earth and far short even of Pagan honesty And how did they go on Even with point of pen and force of arms defying and defaming all Superiority upon earth They razed and threw to the ground hundreds of fair Monasteries and Churches filled all Germany where the fanaticisme began with ruins perverted England Ireland Denmark Swethland and all the Islands here abouts and pillaged the whole Kingdoms This fanatick heresy was opposed by all the learned Catholicks in Christendom and censured not by the Pope only but by a general councel of Bishops gathered together round about to apply their helping hands and stop the ruin And yet has this one dangerous infection been yet too strong for all indeavour Other lesser fanaticismes have yielded to the incessant care and vigilance of Catholick Prelates But this of Protâ—stants holds out as yet and so will still till the temptation be removed by the hand of heaven which turns all mens hearts when the Hour is fittest for it § 15. After this the Doctour gives us the story of St. Ignace Founder of the Society So contumeliously related that his conversion to a stricter life by reading the lives of former Saints his backwardness to human literature his patient sufferings and travels to and fro as his pious purposes led him his fasting and meditations the examinations made of his rigorous course of life and various oppositions his gathering Disciples and indeavour to have his rule confirmed by the Supreme Bishop are all made to sound conformably either to Don Quixots Romance or the esteemed madnesses of Quakers who are saith he at least Grand-children to the founder of the Jesuits Truly these Quakers either are or must it seems be thought an odd kind of people They are Benedictins Franciscans Dominicans Jesuits and all within the compass of one Chapter And yet they profess none of all this nor know nothing of it But here Sir you may perceive at least how easy it is to make a pious and serious matter to sound ridiculous or wild by the meer manner of relating it which is a great and necessary caution against the poison of slanderous tongues What Mâ—ffeius Ribbadanira and Orlandius learned Jesuits write seriously of that holy man if not all to his honour yet no part of it to his disparagement this by prophane irony is travested into mockery Thus do Jewes tell the story of our Christianity and its â—oly founder unto their Châ—ldren in such a Stilling fleetian way that they are made to hate and scorn it all their life after But Jesuits have too much gravity and wisdom in them to be laâ—â—ght out of countenance by a triflâ—ng prevaricator Let St. Ignace be as great a fool as St. Francis or yet as great as tâ—is Author can speak him yet can he not deny but he has wise and grave and learned children whose books have helped him many a tâ—me to make up his Sermon When King Saul began to pâ—ophesy the people wondred at it and asked one another Is Saul also among the Prophets unto whom another replyed How came he there Quis est pater cjus who is his father giving the rest therby to understand that his prophesy was not genuin nor likely to be fixt and constant becaus he was not a Prophet of prophets nor had his