slender green sprig like grass then a stronger blade then an ear promising grain which comes up at length if it be helped and not hurt cherished by sweet showers and the the Suns vital warmth and not blasted with mildew nor lodged by winds nor trod down by beasts And what is good Corn in the fields the same thing are Saints in the Church though not one of a thousand of them is put in the Calender When any one of them is a child he speaks like a child and thinks like a child and does like a child and his main perfection then is obedience fear and observance of his parents who if they be careful of their children after baptism as ancient Christians were might set them in the right way of a blessed life without much trouble In their youth they have various properties some blameable and others innocent some imitable and some to be corrected St. Austin was perverse in his ways St. Francis gallant in his conversation St. Lawrence charitable St. Bennet pious St. Romwall fearful St. Bruno pensative St. Do. minick rigorous St. Martin devout St. Gregory studious St. Nicholas addicted to abstinence St. Hilary bent against heresies St. Anthony inclined to desarts St. Thomas to reading St. Vincent to preaching and the like with infinite variety And all of them by light of Gospel and rule of life drawn out thence and accommodated to their occasions went on still mending pruning and perfecting themselves for Gods favour and further presence even in their mortal bodies as a Temple upon earth proceeding still from vertue to vertue till they all met united at length in one contemplation one spirit one peace and joy in God for eyer And he who thus persevers unto the end is safe and no saint till his voyage be wholly ended Nor is any imperfection in their life to be attributed unto other original then their earthly tabernacles as all ours are Some of them also which I must not here omit to speak are fanciful fearful and scrupulous as probably was St. Romwall in his youth and very many good women amongst whom I may well reckon St. Bridget Gertrude Joan of the Cross and Catherine of Sena not as if their whole life were so but because they were once in their life taken notice of for a notable working of their imagination about the conception Those religious women that were governed by Franciscans fancied Scotus his way truest the other a Dâ—minican Nan saw St. Thomas his school was in the right Whereas indeed they saw perhaps nothing at all in it nor understood where the difference lay And all of them were equally then lest to themselves in punishment of their business about affairs that did nothing at all concern them it was not perhaps their own fault so much as those mens who put these impertinent things into their heads though not perhaps unto any offence to God yet unto some disturbance neither useful to themselves nor others And if those Divines and Doctors who went about to have the visions and revelations of the said good women approved had been truly wise they might have easily understood that Gods good Spirit which inspires inlightens and strengthens us in the ways and will of Christ our great Lord never interposes in subtil curiosities of men I will send you my Spirit saith our Lord and when he comes he will put you in mind of all things which I have told you We are then of that good spirit to learn not what Scotus Aureolus Aquinas or Durandus have imagined but what our souls Lord and maister the eternal Wisdom hath revealed and no more but men are not usually so earnest and zealous for God as they are for their own fancies they talk and think and contend more now adays about the thin imperceptible curiosities which they learned in schools then Gods saving wisdom however be those schoolmen and school-women who they will even the best that any one can make of them sure I am that all actions of saints are not saintly action Those men and women were not dropt out of the Stars but flesh and blood as we are and â—â—able to our infirmities yet are we to admire and love our saints tenderly because they struggled so bravely through all the many encounters and oppositions of this mortal life till they came to enjoy the God of Gods in Sion And what was good or perfect in them is recorded for our imitation what was imperfect they washed away by pennance Divine contemplation and austerities and some also by their precious blood freely and plentifully shed for the sake of Jesus whom they loved unto the end Gods grace still assisting them in all their ways of holiness and truth 3. It was then in my thoughts to show in an ample manner how all the men renowned for sanctity in the world Elias Elisha saint John Baptist and all the Prophets our own twelve Apostles and the first preachers of Christ upon earth were no others then such men as St. Bennet Romwall Bruno Francis Dominick even in those very things whence Still concludes them all to be fanaticks and fools Saint Paul saw in a vision the secrets of God which he could never express by humane words which thing is derided here in St. Bennet who is said to have known the secrets of the Divinity St. Peter had a vision of a sheet let down from Heaven by the four corners of it and such a vision was that of St. Francis and Dominick supporting the Lateran Church St. Paul was buffeted by an Angel of Satan which is mockt at as fanatical in saint Romwall bruised by evil angels Saint Peter discovered Ananias that he was not what he pretended dispropriated of his goods which is markt as fanatical in St. Bennet discovering the dissimulation of Riggo who appeared before him as a King and was not Saint Paul melted so much with the love of Jesus that he no more lived now but Jesus lived in him which is laughed at here in saint Francis said to melt away at the fight of the Crucifix The same Apostle was abused all manner of ways nay even scourged and whipt by the Jews his own country-men which is noted here as a sign of fanaticism in saint Francis when the people derided and threw dirt at him Jacob saw a Ladder let down from Heaven flouted here in saint Romwall who saw Monks ascending upon such a thing Eliseus discerned the secrets contrived in the King of Syria's chamber which is here vilified in saint Bennet said to perceive his Monks when they drunk or eat out of his sight Abraham and Daniel saint John Evangelist and others had frequent revelations and visions of good and bad Angels the least part whereof is here esteemed ridiculous in saint Romwall and saint Bennet nay our holy Lord and Saviour tells us many of his own visions of Nathanael for example seen under his figtree of Dives and Lazâ—rus perceived in distant places and
conditions of the Angels falling from Heaven like lightning And we are here to observe that whatever grace or vertue our Lord had himself should be dispersed among those who follow him with a true and upright heart for of his fulness we all receive even grace for grace Whence we may well conclude that saint Francis Bennet Romwall Bruno and Dominick were Jesus Christs true servants by the graces and visions they had like himself and not that they were fools and fanaticks except we intend that others more forward men should by the same topick conclude the like of Jesus Christ himself and what I pray you Sir would a prophane Rhetorick what sport would it make upon several words of the Gospel concerning our Lord for example Marc. 3. where it is said of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he was beside himself Is not this in our Doctors english to be a fanatick saint Francis with the rest slighted the world left their patrimonies went poorly attired beaten reviled scoft at by the world Were not all the Apostles such men in a mind piously disposed these things would seem glorious and transcending the power of flesh and blood either to do or suffer constantly through our whole life without some special assistance from Heaven But where God once inhabits he raises above earthly things those holy tabernacles of his now wholly conversant in Heaven And so much indeed as any man hath of God so much is he he like to saint Francis and Bennet to the Prophets and Aposties of our Lord however these may appear to carnal eys contemptuous and vile Flesh and blood left alone seeks ease wealth fulness honour and whatsoever is gustful to our outward sences or more interiour imagination reduced into concupiscence of flesh concupiscence of eyes and pride of life And he that laughs at the lives of St. Bennet or St. Francis and the rest like unto them can have but little of Gods Spirit in him if any thing at all The stile of the holy Ghost concerning such men is Diametrically opposite unto the jeering phrase of Dr. Stilling fleet By faith saith holy Writ Abraham as soon as he was called obeyed to march forth into a place he should inhabite not knowing whither he went By faith he removed towards a land promised him into a strange country and dwelt in tabernacles and so did Isaac and Jacob heirs with him of the same promise For he looked for a City having a foundation whose builder and maker is God Thus speaks the holy Scripture and is not this St. Bennets case as well as Abrahams Did not he thus march forth out of his father house thus dwell in the tabernacles of rocks and caves looking after a City built above in Heaven and both St. Bennet and Abraham did both of them dye in that their faith and never returned again from whence they came Again by faith saith holy Scripture Moses when he was great refused to be called the son of Pharaos daughter choosing rather to suffer adversity with the people of God then to injoy the pleasures of sin for a season preferring rebukes and taunts before the treasures of Egypt Thus did Moses and is it not the same thing which St. Francis did St. Francis preferred rebukes and taunts for Christs sake whom he loved before the pleasure of his fathers house nay to suffer adversity with Gods peculiar people for that name he rejoyced to be disinherited by his own father Moses then and St. Francis were both of them either wise and holy men or a couple of fools Holy Scripture goes on thus others were tortured and racked others mocked and scourged bound and imprisoned stoned and murdered cast out from amongst men and banished walking up and down in Sheeps skins and Goats skins in need and want in tribulation and affliction wandering in wildernesses in mountains dens and caves of the earth of whom the world was not worthy and all these men through faith obtained a good report Thus speaks holy Writ but Dr. Stilling fleet has no good report for them they are all in his phrase and judgment madmen and fanaticks and unworthy of the world whom the holy Ghost judges beloved and divine Heroes of whom the world is not worthy And our great Lord at the sight of these exulted in Spirit and said I confess to thee O Father Lord of Heaven and earth for that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes So O Father because it so seemed good before thee 4. Another thing also did then much run in my thoughts and it is this that all the whole History of our Lords incarnation passion ascention is liable to the same kind of derision here used by this Doctour Nay the whole Gospel and all the precepts and counsels of Christianity together with all its threats and promises are as meer a folly unto a carnal man that will presume â—o sport himself with them as any thing here derided Few of those who live in this present age are ignorant of this Our ears are beaten with such talk familiarly in all places And the bearer does generally but laugh and applaud the wit of this prophane orator For this reason St. Paul to prevent the cavil acknowledges himself a fool aforehand Ye do willingly bear with fools saith he to the inhabitants of Corinth and take me if you please for such another We are all fools in Christ And if any one doth seem to be wise among you let him become a fool too that he may be wise indeed I know saith he again that the word of the cross is but folly unto desperate forlorn men But Gods folly is wiser than mans wit The foolish things of the world these hath God chosen that he may confound the wise and so hath that holy one ordered his ways and counsels that by folly he might save the world which carnal wisdom had undone These and other things to this purpose speaks that holy man And what I pray you Sir is greater folly with carnal men than to pass by injuries insensibly and suffer our selves to be abused in patience to divide our goods among poor people neither of kin to us nor perhaps known to disdain this present life to fly with all caution the delights and pleasures of it to pant and breath after our last hour so to mannage all our affaires as if our Soul were but a pilgrim in our mortal body to meditate daily on our latter end still to abstract our mind from visible and corporeal things ready to fly hence out of this prison unto our God invisible our bodies either slenderly regarded or wholly neglected or perhaps chastised and curbed that liveing here we may express our Lords death and dying obtain part of his resurrection and glory which yet our eye never saw nor ear heard nor can our heart conceive what it is All this which is but evangelical rules and counsels acted by good
graven things were made representations and similitudes both in Heaven and Earth notwithstanding the said law as the Serpent of brass which must either be made by melting or graving pomegranates lilies and various such-like things both graven in stone and interwoven in silks Cherubins or Angels in the Propitiatory even in Moses time and afterwards more fully and plentifully in Solomon's Temple it is not rationally to be doubted but that this law of his was intended only to keep those People close and constant to their own God and to their own Religion which was inconsistent with the idols of the Nations and not for any purpose of keeping Abraham Isaac and Jacob either out of their chamber hangings or ours I know the Jews do urge this Precept of Moses very eagerly against Christians ever since Jesus Christ our Lord was rejected by them whose image and figure they cannot abide to see But we must have patience with all men § 9. Moses saith he grounded this law of his upon a reason unchangable namely that Gods infinite and incomprehensible Deity cannot be represented O profound invention This is such a law and ground of a law as was never before thought of The ground and reason of making a law must be this an impossibility of breaking it They must not make any representations of God because God cannot be represented And the same motive or reason will be equally proper for all the rest of the Commandments They must keep the seventh day of the week a holy day The reason and motive because there is not an eighth day to keep holy and sanctifie They must honour their Parents The ground and reason of this because none of the whole Camp had any Fathers or Mothers alive to dishonour They must not kill The motive and reason is because they were all shot-free and so firmly inchanted that none could hurt them They must not commit adultery The ground and reason is because there was never a Woman in the Camp which any man though provok'd with the highest lust could possibly come near or touch with a pair of tongues They must not steal The great cause thereof is that there is nothing at all in the Camp for any man to take away Thus the Doctor imagines Moses to forbid any representations of God because God cannot be represented And such another discreet Mounsieur was he who solemnly commanded his Bowyer not to make him any shafts at all of a Piggs tail and he gravely gave him the reason for it because quoth he of a piggs tail no shaft can be made Truth is Moses never thought of any such Law nor any such reason of it much less but provided for the security of the Hebrews Religion that it might remain unchangable and firm in the mids of those many Nations round about them who worshiped false Gods and idols as Moses very frequently interprets himself and all the Prophets after him Therefore saith God by Moses thou shalt have no other Gods but me thou shalt not make to thy self any figures as the Gentiles do nor worship them For I am a jealous God and will have no intermingling of devillish idolatry with my service And all the reason given by Moses is gods jealousie not induring any divine worship but his own This is the very truth and all the truth of this business which this Doctor would turn another way thereby to make Moses seem as simple a man as himself And those idols forbidden by Moses did so involve an opposition to the true God and his divine worship that People could not possibly betake themselves to one but they must leave the other Therefore did Moses forbid both other Gods besides their own one God and all idols together which was by antient Christians very rationally and wisely reckoned all one and the same Commandement whereof no less a Man then St. Austin himself is witness But the memories of Abraham Isaac and Jacob could bring no such danger with them And that is our care for we are not in danger of loosing the faith of Jesus Christ by keeping the Image of him our crucified Lord among us or forsaking the communion of Saints by retaining their portraictures before our eyes We should ipso facto renounce our Lord and all his whole Religion should we set up Moses his forbidden Idols and make it our religion to worship them as heathens did But we are heartened incouraged and confirmed in our Christian Religion by looking on the faces of so many our glorious Martyrs holy Anchorets and Hermits pious Virgins and Confessors who profest this our Religion before us bravely triumphing by the power of Christs love and divine faith over sins allurements and deaths ugliest terrours though incompassed themselves with the like passions and infirmities we are our selves invironed round about And when we are entred into a Church amongst so many of our worthy Predecessors we compose our selves more heartily to our devotion then otherwise we should do in imitation of them remembring now that we are come up to Mount Sion to the City of our living God to celestial Jerusalem and society of Angels to the Church of Primitive Christians conscript in the Heavens to God the Judge of all to the Spirits of just men perfected to Jesus the Mediator of a new Testament and to the aspersion of blood speaking better things than Abel § 10. The Heathens saith he did ill in their idol worship and yet the wiser sort among them testifie that they did not hold them to be Gods but worshipped God in them Our acute divine having now by his fine wit so clarified Moses law that it might not so much concern Idolaters as our vulgar Painters he now begins so to purifie idolaters practice too that they may seem but in the same condition with our Catholick and best Christians And who would not give his penny to hear him act and speak The heathens all in general are so excused in their idolatry Aaron in his act of apostacy and Jeroboam in his great sin that they are all and each of them no otherwise faulty then the Church of Rome in his books Thus doth Mr. Stillingfleet convert idolatrous Nations while he sits dreaming in his Closet Here he diminishes and there he exaggerates here he blacks with his Pen and there he whitens and then he cries out all is one all of the same measure all of the same colour And truly I believe the great Gyant Goliah and little David might thus be made equal if the Gyant were beheaded and cut off by the knees on one side and David on the other side set upon a high pair of stilts While Cathoâ—icks are made to do what they do not and Heathens not to do what they do on a supposal that all this is true there can be no great difference Let us then hear him what he tells us of Heathens in general The wiser sort among them testifie quoth he that they worshiped not
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
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
holy Assemblies the great paramount work of Christianity especially at Mass But these men although moved unto that their exception by a Zeal not evil yet were they fain to yield at last unto the prevaling reasons of other Prelates which over bore their lesser ones Some other of our Catholick Doctors and Prelates would have had us to have used no Pictures that Jews and Pagans might not catch at that pretence to cavil against our Christianity as they did But all these submitted at last unto the prevailing part by whom they were made to understand that the inconveniences they urged were but imaginary and small the conveniences great and real There have been not a few who have excepted against much vocal Prayer because it took up too much of the time which would be better employed in the more principal work of prayer in spirit But yet could they not carry it although their reasons were very plausible and good because that high and Angelical prayer in spirit agreed not equally to all men or to any one consisting of flesh and blood equally at all times and places as vocal prayer does Some have disliked even our material Temples built up so sumptuously as they are because God immense and incomprehensible dwells not in buildings made by mans hands Heaven is his Seat and Earth his Footstool Yet could they not obtain that our Churches should be therefore pulled down or not built up Prayer-books were nothing at all in use amongst Christians in primitive times when they prayed almost altogether in spirit and used no other vocal prayer but that our Lord taught us And yet this hinders us not either to make such books or use them in following times Instead of our beads in wood or mettal they used in ancient times a bag of little stones by the emptying whereof they knew that they had said over our Lords prayer a hundred or perhaps three hundred times according as any one in his devotion had prefixed to himself every day of his life to do for Gods glory and service And there might be inconveniences pretended against our present heads especially those of gold and pearl But they will not be thrown away for that Our Church-musick has been more than once opposed and that by Prelates most holy and renowned men who deemed it an unsufferable lettance to the spiritual recollection which Christians ought above all things to a tend unto that they may have our Lords good Spirit and his holy operations in them especially when they meet together at their holy Synaxis But Church-musick is kept up to this day notwithstanding their reason against it which is very good for other reasons no less good and great than it specified and urged by the far greater number of pious Prelates for it And yet if all or the greater part of Catholick Prelates meeting together should take away all these outward helps from us beads and books singing and Church-musick pictures and Churches and all finding the inconveniences to be now greater than they have been and weightier than any convenience we have by them though the thing would seem very strange to us yet ought we I think to obey them resignedly and attend wholly unto our spiritual meditations either alone or in our Eucharistian meetings and to the other good works commanded orcounselled us in Gospel in expectation of our future bliss and eternal happiness in God which can never be taken from us though all things of discipline or helps in government be alterable § 4. And now it is time to turn back and view the subject of this Chapter that we may see if any one period in it be true and pertinent He tells us first that Papists worship God by Images which logically is not true Then that a representation of the invisible Deity cannot be made which is impertinent Then that the worship given to God by an Image does not terminate upon God which is neither pertinent nor true And so he proceeds on to the very end of his Chapter with sounds either empty or false or both neither heeding or caring what he says so he do but mention learned Papists and wiser Heathens which may help to butterress up his reputation I cannot but remember here the shadow or Ghost in Virgil which Juno made of Aeneas to draw her beloved Turnus out of the field It seemed to fight and threaten and press on and give back But nothing at all was done really Tum dea nube cave tenuem sine viribus umbram In faciem Aeneae visu mirabile monstrum Dardaniis ornat telis clypeumque jubasque Divini assimilat capitis dat inania verba Dat sine mente sonum gressusque effingit euntiâ— Morte obita quales fama est volit are figuras Aut quae sopitos deludunt somnia sensus Ac primas laeta ante acres exultat imago Irritatque virum telis ac voce lacessit And such a shadow of controversie is all this present Chapter and his whole book also a foming face and feeble force big but empty words rumbling and yet insignificant sounds quâ—ck profers and no progress a daring shadow or armed Ghost without either body or bones And yet such a thing as defies the whole Catholick Church steps out from the rest of his Camp and defies them all alone defies them both in letters syllables words And this is all For he touches no body Because Catholâ—cks by the advice and allowance of their Prelates do keep amongst them the representation of the divine Founder of their Religion who appeared amongst us by his unspeakable Love in form of a Man and of some of his holy followers in the way he chalked out for us therefore he talks of Moloch and Milcom Osiris and Isis Chemosh and Astaroth Baal Peor and Rimmon golden Bulls and Remphan the Calves of Dan and Bethel And what is all this for Wy to over-run Papists and beat us down How can it do that These Idols were set up by Heathens in opposition to the true God and in the very place of God as darkness in the night time is in the place of light This is true What then and therefore I must not forsooth keep the figure of Jesus Christ or of S. Paul or other domestick of my own religion for my own incouragement therein What likness what consequence is there in all this Which is Remphan and where is Moloch Which is the Calf and where is the Bull Nay and here it is worth our observing too that Protestant Gentlement and Ladies of England Ministers and Bishops too have all pictures in their Chambers as well as Catholicks even those of our holy Apostâ—es and Martyrs as well as others And there they are good and lawful figures but in our Chambers they are Bulls of Basan and Calves of Bethel among us Catholick Pictures are against Moses his Law but theirs are not so Although they be representations both in Heaven above and Earth below and Waters
under earth expresly by the same Law forbidden for example Moon and Stars Dogs and Cats Whales and Dolphins The Picture of Martin Luther in their Chamber is the lawful effigies of a man But Saint Stephen in our Closet is a Calf Can any man who talks at this rate be thought to be one that has conversed either with the learned sort of Papists or the wiser sort of Heathens or one rather that had never any conversation at all either with reason or men O but Catholicks worship God by their Images which Protestants do not I marry this is a huge fault indeed that Catholicks take thereby occasion to think of God and his manifold mercies and bless his name and trust in him For they no other way worship God by Images This is the mortal sin which Catholicks commit And if that illogical speech of the Doctor Catholicks worship God by Images be drawn into any kind of sence it can be no other than this that Catholicks take occasion by the pious faces of their Martyrs to think of Gods manifold graces and mercies towards them and thereupon trust in him afresh and bless his name which great errour the Doctor it seems does carefully avoid The ancient devout Christians thought of God and worshipped him by any thing any good thing they enjoyed the verdant fields and sweet flowers comfortable air and pleasing light mountains valleys and liquid streams Plumbs Pears Apples and chearful Grapes by the vertue charity and devotion of men the ministry of Angels c. But now we must take heed of that We may taste a Plumb or a Cherry we may eat a Venison Pasty and drink good Wine if we can get it nay we may have fine Pictures in our Chambers even the Picture of Jesus Christ crucified or any of his followers we may have all this if we be such good Protestants as Mr. Stillingfleet and never think of God or worship God by it But if we worship God by it if we think of God by it then it is all poison to us All is suddenly turned to Moloch to Remphan to Bâ—al Peor to Ashtaroth to Aarons golden Steer and the Calves of Bethel If we do but eat a custard thinking of God or worshipping God by it presently it becomes a Ramphan or Chiun the Idol of the Arabians Walking upon Hamstead hill as people use innocently enough to do if casting our eyes about the prospect we think of God by it as Catholicks are wont the hill before innocent is now become a Baal Peor the Idol of the Moabites A Citizâ—n walking to the Tower may look harmlesly enough upon the Crown and royal Robes there But he must take heed then that he fall not into a meditation of Heaven or the glory of its great King to worship him in his heart by it For then it becomes to him an Adramelech the idol of Sepharvaâ—m And he must beware of the like abuse when he sees the Chamber and Table where his Majesty sits in Council with his Peers lest it become a Moloch to him the idol of the Moabites The very Flags and Banners often seen in London-streets make some simple soul to think of Jerusalem above the peace and happy company there and the God of all but then O how suddenly is the Streamer metamorphosed and tâ—rned into Nesroch the idol of Senacherib Some are so bold when they either see or hear of any corrupted by the French-pox and lecâ—eâ—y to thank God who has preserved them and worship God by it And thereby sin no less grievously than Maacham the Mother of Asa King of Judah in worshipping her idol Priap or Nimphleseth A Gentleman called upon God not in words onely but very heaâ—tâ—ly when a troublesome Fly got into his Eve and much afflâ—cted him but he little thought that by that piety of his he had sinned as deeply as they that worship Baalzebub the idol of Acaron Nothing is more ordinary with Country Gentlemen when walking abroad they behold a goodly fair Flock of Sheep in pasture of their own than to thank God and worship God by it but little do they think good men they are guilty of idolatry thereby as much guilty as they that worshipped Ashtaroth the idol of the Philistins Nay a very Cow or Calf in the Meadows if we take occasion by it to thank God for his benefits or to worship God by it is the same thing then as Aarons Moulten heifer or Jeroboams Calves set up in Dan and Bethel And as it is for substance so for the figures of things St. Paul's picture so long as we do not think of God by it is a lawful picture But if we come once to think of God to worship God by it O then that is a Calf too Aarons Calf one of Jeroboams Calves c. This thinking of God this worshipping of God by any thing this is the pestilential blast that spoils all It turns sweet into bitter lawful into unlawful things innocent into sin and good things to death The representation of our blessed Lord crucified for us so long as we think not of him may pass for a good innocent or at least indifferent thing but if we once think seriously of him if we worship God by it then O Mr. Stillingfleet what is it then And yet answer me not For I will not have those blasphemous words here repeated Speak them to a Jew in order to Jesus Christ and he will embrace and love you But a Christian cannot enduâ—e to hear them § 5. Papists saith he worship God by images and so are guilty of idolatry Catholicks may hear this but can never understand what he means They are never taught in any of their Catechisms to worship God by Images None of their spiritual books wherein all religious Duties are importunately urged and pressed upon them ever mention it and their practice does not infer it For if it did they would easiliest understand it who best know what themselves do They are taught and do in their practice endeavour to worship God in their heart and soul and ardent affections streaming forth thence towards him They worship him with bended knees lips voice hearts and eyes lifted up unto him They worship him with the assistance of Gods good Spirit the Priests Sacrifice and help of mutual Prayers They worship him by mortifying their sensuality and carnal appetites by giving alms and relieving the poor and needy for his Love by observing his Laws and Counsels by resigning to his good will and pleaâ—ure in all things especially in time of afflicting persecutions when they suffer all manner of reproach lies and calumnies loss of goods and sometimes life it sell for his name sake patiently They worship him in Closets in Church-assemblies in the fields as they are walking on Land or Sea where they have oppportunity to do it Thus doth their religion teach them to worship God as with the right causes and instruments as by the true effects and