endeavour believing all they can possibly do is yet too little unless Gods mercy and goodness interposing accept freely their poor pitiful endeavours And of the multitude of their Priests in the Catholick world there is hardly one of a thousand so desperate but he spends one hour in prayer recollection and examination of himself before he dare approach the Altar And that one if any such there be who shall neglect this his due preparation so that he communicate unworthily if by timely and serious repentance he do not recover himself will harden by degrees and be lost irrevocably Thus some do fall away either openly or occultly and these occult apostates are easily known by this that they are wholly taken up in worldly affairs and sensual pleasures not rellishing now any spiritual employments in their closet Thus affairs stand with Catholicks in this business And what can we then think of this Doctor who tells the world such a notorious untruth against them But is it not defined that the Sacraments of the new law confer grace ex opere operato This is very true indeed it is so defined But what is the english of these latin words ex opere operato not surely this without disposition without any preparation or examination or devotion This is not the english of that latin but this By the very work done which gives us quite another sâ—nce and meaning That thing avails by the very work done which carries with it self a power and virtue if the work be done to avail and profit us Our corporeal meat sustains our bodies ex opere operato or by the very work of eating done and completed in all its operations we all know this And yet none of us think that we need not therefore have any appetite or disposition in our bodies when we eat or that we need not keep our bodies clean or sound or healthful that our food may be unto us the savour of life unto life and good nouriture and strength And the Doctor if he had not studied rather to misconstrue all things than interpret any thing right might easily have discerned the true and connatural meaning of the words by their very place and posture in the canon cited by himself out of the Tridentine Council For there it is defined and openly declared against the Protestant Reformers who exalted faith onely and solitary faith unto the exclusion of all other good works and use of sacraments that our Lords sacraments instituted for our sanctification and comfort are both profitable and necessary unto that end of conveighing grace and sanctity into us and that by a virtue conferred upon them by the divine Author and Institutor of them This the Council there defines opposing the virtue of sacraments shewing it self and streaming into the heart of the worthy receiver in the very thing done unto the bare and naked faith of those lewd reformers even as the sad Council still up and down in all their Sessions did maintain the necessity of prayer alms-deeds mortification penance justice truth satisfaction sobriety continence purity of life meekness and all Christian virtues against that wicked Solifidian heresie which they with all their force endeavoured utterly to root out Siquis dixerit saith the Council there per ipsa novae legis sacramenta ex opere operato non conferri gratiam sed fidem solam divinae promissionis ad gratiam consequendam sufficere anathema sit Who can be so blind as not to see here plainly declared that our Lords sacraments have a sanctifying power either in them or with them and therefore not to be contemned or neglected under any pretence of faith which although it be good and lively with the concurrence of other good works and graces yet is it without them unprofitable and dead And amongst those good helps and quickners of our faith are the sacraments by our Lord himself instituted none of the least or meanest and therefore to be received with all love and reverence as the very conduits of divine grace ex opere operato derived into our souls from thence Here then we cannot prudently imagine that our Catholick Prelates in the Council exclude our devotion disposition of mind exercise of faith prayer and repentance strict examination endeavour of a holy life mortification and watchfulness all which they had elsewhere established but to suppose rather and include them all because all these are opposed unto faith alone as necessary preparatives for the receiving of that virtue which sacraments confer And the Council rather chose to express themselves when they would speak of the powerful operation of sacraments rather in this general way ex opere operato than any other more particular manner that they might declare themselves in words acknowledged and indifferent unto both the great schools in the Catholick world whereof though both of them agree that grace is conferred by the thing done yet one teaches that the said grace or virtue is inherent and intrinsecal the other that it is extrinsecal onely and assistant to the sacraments And therefore would not the Council say that sacraments contain grace but that they cause it ex opere operato by their sacramental application unto the faithful and worthy receiver It is a long received opinion among schoolmen saith the doctor that sacraments of the old law in conferring grace depend upon opus operantis the faith and devotion of the receiver but those of the new confer grace ex opere operato without any disposition internal motion or preparation of mind O shameless ignorance very fain would this man be thought a deep schoolman who never penetrated any one schoolman in his life as it appears sufficiently by his simple talk nor yet understands them either what they say or who they are Insomuch that I am half perswaded that he takes Lillies Grammar for one of the schoolmen Is that an opinion a long received opinion among schoolmen How long for Gods sake and among how many of them All of them for certain Nay name ten for there are many hundreds of schoomen and all masters although not all institutors or sounders of the chair and as simply as I sit here I have been a piece of one my self which I now speak Sir that this doctor if he come by any chance to hear of this my little postil might not fear that he has got some petty abecedarian Commentator who largely explaining his easier texts should pass by his more grave and harder ones untouched Nay let him name onely one and it shall suffice The margent of his book over against this his school-assertion was bare and able to hold one mans name at least and yet he leaves it quite empty He does not quote so much as any one schooman for the justification of this his assertion most unconscionably false And although it nothing concerns us in our defence of faith what opinion is amongst schoolmen who have raised an art of their own an art of
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
to Saints as Heathens to those dieties Two more falsities Papists do neither of these And the Doctor might be ashamed to talk thus Have not Protestants St. Pauls Church St Peters Church St. Dunstan St. Steven St. Johns Church and the like even as Catholicks have And did ever any Catholick in the world say or write or profess to offer Sacrifice to Saints They use a formal invocation of them One more Formal invocation is only an invocation of the cause who is to give the blessing grace or favour petitioned and from whom all good things do flow and not of him who requests it Popish Hymns and Anthems in honour of Saints are not only Rhetorical Apostrophees used by some of the Greek Fathers or poetical flourishes as those of Damascus Prudentius Paulinus Ambrosius or only general wishes that Saints would pray for us of which are some instances in good Authors or any devout Assemblies at the Monuments of Martyrs which were usual in antient times They are indeed not only this because they are also and principally formal invocations of the most glorious God as any one may perceive who will please to read over our Catholick Hymns for Apostles Martyrs Confessors Virgins in the Breviary as the Doctor more shame for him thus to talk hath done himself St. Austins example when he says Blessed St. Cyprian help us in our Prayers availes not Papists at all for that of St. Austin was but a pâ—ous Apostrophee It availes as much as we need call it Apostrophe or what you please Nor does it availe Papists that Faustus the Manichean Calumniates Catholicks living in St. Austins time with their honouring the memories and shrines of Martyrs and turning the old Idols into Martyrs which those Catholicks worshipped with like Vows for St. Austin's excuse of that fact does not agree with the Papists that are now adayes It so well agrees with them and justifies so punctually all that ever they do in this affair that they need not either to change or add one word to it I will only seâ— down that excuse of St. Austin as Mr. Still has been pleased here in his book to give it us without addition or change of any word All the worship saith St. Austin which we give to Saints is that of love and society which is the same kind with that we give to holy men of this life who are ready to suffer for truth of Gospel Sacrifice is not only refused to Saints and Angels but any other Religious honour which is due to God as the Angel forbad St. John to fall down and worship him The Heathens indeed built Temples erected Altars appointed Priests and offered Sacrifice to their Idols But we erect no Temples to Martyrs as to Gods but memories as to dead men whose Spirits live with God We raise no Altars on which to Sacrifice to our Martyrs but unto our one God only the God of Martyrs as well as ours at which They as men of God who have overcome the world by confessing him are named in their place and order but are not invocated by the Pâ—iest who Sacrifices Whatever Christians do at the memories of Martyrs is for Ornament to those memories and not as any sacred rites and sacrifices belonging to the dead as Gods Nor do we worship our Martyrs with divine honours nor with the faults of men as the Gentiles did their Gods Thus speaks St. Austin to Faustus for the Catholicks then living as Dr. Still himself reports And the Catholicks now alive need no more to be said for them And thus his Idolatry Romance which fill up two of his Chapters is now happily ended And me-thinks Sir that he hath behaved himself herein somwhat like our Country Gypsies who meeting with people in the way under pretence of telling them their Fortunes ask them many odd uncouth Questions about things past not easily to be remembred and speak unintelligable ambiguous words which put them into so deep a muse that the Gypsies get thereby a fair opportunity to pick their pockets ΤΩ ΚΑΘΟΛΙΚΩ THe Doctor pretends Sir in his third Chapter to descend unto some parcels of our morality perswading us that five pieces of our belief and practice are main hindrances of a good life and devotion namely our Doctrine as he calls it of penance of purgatory of prayers in an unknown tongue of the efficacy of sacraments and of our prohibition of scripture His reasons for all this or his cunning leiger ways of perverting all these things his insincerity therein and notable dissimulation you shall hear by and by For perceiving now that after I have set down the sum of his text in gross I am forced to repeat it all again by retail spending thereby both time and paper needlesly I must content my self to give you his text onely in parts with my short comment adjoyned to each parcel as I go But give me leave to tell you Sir thus much in general aforehand that all this his whole Chapter is so palpably uncharitable and unjust that no honest understanding Reader what pleasure soever he took himself in writing it can read it over without disdain and grief What is this world come to and where are we and what strange things do we see and hear daily This one book of Dr. Still is to me such a world of wonders that I shall not hereafter ever marvel any more at any lie or slander that I shall know imposed by any whatever wicked man upon his neighbour Has the fool said in his heart there is no God no providence at all no care or respect to be used towards men Are all things lawful that any one shall lust to do or say against his neighbour no compassion no truth any more God help our innocent Catholicks And sure I am God will help them and justifie their cause in his own good time and preserve them always Hinderances of a good Life and Devotion § 1. Their Sacrament of Penance with contrition saith he is sufficient in the Church of Rome for Salvation without any more ado No mortyfying of passions no forsaking of sin is requisite who would not be of this fine easie way where all the precepts of holiness are insignificant But what one Catholick man upon the face of the earth ever thought or said this which he imposes here upon them all as their religion and faith Holy Gospel and all our spiritual books wherein our substantial religion is contained both those of antient times and of our later writers as Granada Thomas a Kempis S. Bonaventure Parsons Resolutions Bishop Sales Drexellius Stella and others do all of them press and urge this Catholick duty of interiour renovation sanctification and conformity to our Lord Jesus as the main end of his appearance amongst men And Catholicks themselves know that it is their onely care and fear their desire and study so to do such men to live and such to die as our Lord would have us For this
end we say our daily prayers with our hymns and canticles for this end we meditate for this end we fast and chastise our bodies for this we do penance make restitution give alms frequent sacraments and all that we endeavour according to our poor abilities Gods good counsels and holy grace assisting us He who shall please onely to peruse the writings of Dr. Eckius and his fellow Catholicks who opposed Martin Luther and his Protestant-reformation when it first rose up may there clearly see that this interiour sanctity and renovation and holiness of life is the one great Catholick point stoutly maintained against those wild and dissolute Reformers who began now to corrupt the world with that cursed opinion of theirs that faith alone is sufficient to salvation And what a strange man is this Dr. Stillingfleet If any one indeed of our men had objected to Protestants that in their reformation-way neither penance nor contrition nor satisfaction nor renovation of life is needful according to the first Masters of the Reformation who taught and maintained openly and in the eyes of this very Sun that nothing is necessary to salvation but onely to believe and by that naked faith to apply Christs merits to themselves all interiour sanctification being both impossible and needless he had said no more than truth and what he might easily have proved out of the first Reformers principles however I hope not maintained now by many of our wiser Protestants in England who notwithstanding remain still in that reformation which was chalked out for them by such wicked Leaders But now to lay upon Catholicks that wicked doctrine of Reformers opposed now a whole hundred years by our Catholick Divines is a desperate confidence befitting none but men wholly unconscionable Let them keep their own dirt to themselves and not throw it into our faces however they begin now to be weary and ashamed of it The precepts of holiness sobriety and justice are insignificant to them who have hitherto even from the very cradles of this unlucky reformation publickly defended them to be insignificant and not to us who have still maintained that they are the very all in all of Christianity I have troubled my self some while to think what should move Dr. Still to invent this slander Some word or other he must pervert but I cannot conclude what it should be Perhaps he may take occasion from hence that whereas there be several things concurring to our purification after sin as Gods grace and our dislike of our own ill deeds fear of Gods wrath and punishment grief for his love and favour forfeited an humble confession purpose of amendment and renovation of life some Schoolmen have amongst their other curiosities considered into which of these many things may our justification be principally attributed as the principal virtue and cause of it under God For God who created us without our selves will not redeem us without our selves And if any one in his philosophy have said that confession and sorrow have the chiefest influence on our fide that may be enough for Dr. Still to say as here he does that we make confession and contrition all in all and renovation of life nothing Or perhaps because Catholick Doctors have taught that confession together with contrition may sometimes be so great and cordial at the last hour that evil men may thereby find mercy with God as the good thief did although they have no further leasure to mend and renew their lives therefore does this man conclude that with us confession with contrition is sufficient without any more ado Whence soever he concludes or gathers it he knows best himself But this I know that it is an abominable slander And if all his readers were as skilful in our Catholick religion as we our selves who profess it he would not have dared to speak these things despairing then of finding any credit either with man woman or child § 2. They of the Church of Rome need little to heed a good life who can have their sins expiated in Purgatory by the prayers of the living which is a doctrine very pleasing to rich men but uncomfortable to the poor Pretty stuff And need not then any man heed either to have patience in afflictions or do his duty because another prays to God either that he may do so or find mercy if he have done otherwise Or must he needs be negligent of himself to day because he hopes good people will pray for him to morrow when he cannot help himself Souls departed are by our Christianity believed to be now out of the place and way of merit for there is neither art nor industry nor any good work to be done in the grave whether we all hasten And if friends on earth where Gods favour may by our dutiful compliance be obtained do commend their dead to Gods mercy and goodness this surely cannot make those friends careless of themselves while they remain here living All men know that it is not enough for our entrance into heaven to cry Lord Lord which is the voice of those who think that onely faith saves but the will of God who is in heaven is to be fulfilled by every one that shall enter there And yet it is good and pleasing and profitable notwithstanding to cry and supplicate unto our Lord God with all earnestness of heart both for our selves and friends But the poor are then in a sad condition and the rich man may easilier enter into the kingdom of heaven than a camel through a needles eye by procuring Masses for their Souls Who told this man that the Souls of the poor are not prayed for in the Catholick Church He onely thinks so And he thinks amiss therein as he loves to do Whence doth he gather that the rich go to heaven so easily in our esteem by Masses This he thinks too Perhaps he does For I am much deceived if he do not utter many a falshood which he knows to be such before he utters it At least none of ours ever told him the one nor the other and what we believe or do our selves he may easily mistake and we have had already sufficient experience of his ignorance therein or some worser misdemeanor Prayer or whatever good work of Christianity although it may do some good ye◠does it not therefore do all and what does not all good must not therefore be denied to do some Poor Lazarus's may by their cold hunger and nakedness here on earth patiently endured satisfie for their humane frailties so far with God here that after this life having no utmost farthing to account for they may chance not to need any farther help But the rich men of the world will not easily be brought unto those many voluntary penances and mortifications which their sensualities exact unto their expiation and peace with God It were a happy thing if they would be perswaded in their life-time to distribute part of their goods unto
the rule of St. Brendan the rule of St. Columbanus the rule of St. David the rule of St. Martin the rule of St. Austin the rule of St. Patrick the rule of Lyrinum the rule of St. Regulus the rule of St. Ninian the rule of Floriacum the rule of St. Joseph Very eminent were the episcopal Monasteries all over the Christian world in primitive times especially for the first six hundred years of Christianity wherein Bishops themselves led a monastical life with their clergy in a community together And out of this clergy were selected still the choicest men for virtue and learning to oversee the parishes amongst whom they still lived by the said rule as far as it could be accommodated to their occasions unto the edification and comfort of the people And although our clergy is not ordinarily educated now adays in so strâ—ct a course yet is it no ways handsom for all that in my judgment that these men of God Priests of our Lord Jesus and venerable dispensers of his mysteries should any of them be called Seculars especially sith their state and condition requires that they live in chastity under an obedience to their Bishops and perhaps without an absolute dominion of their own goods and all of them prescribe to themselves some good rule or other for the government of their lives Very eminent were the relâ—gious of ' St Mark in Alexandria where thousands of them lived more like Angels of God than men Very eminent were the religious orders instituted by the Apostles amongst whom all things were common and none had any thing which he could call his own For they all made a voluntary abdication of their goods that they might serve God uniformly in a community together Amongst whom Ananias pretending to enter as dispropriated of all his goods like the rest which indeed he was not suffered a corporal death for his dissimulation So that teligious institutes are as antient as Christianity it self For it is not to be thought that St. Peter and the other Apostles would exhort any to a greater perfection of life than they professed themselves by their education under Jesus the great Master whose words and counsels must still be profest by some in his Church while others whose condition of life cannot reach so high conform themselves to the rules and precepts of sobriety justice and piety that are common to all loving the rest of their Catholick body which may serve God better than they can do in their worldly entanglements And I am very clearly persuaded that the true real Church of God wherein Christs good Spirit dwells as it never has been so never can it be without religious orders And it is hard to say which of them all from the beginning of the Church to this day is the chiefest or what founder of them was most enthusiastical § 8. It is a fair way towards the proof of St. Bennets fanaticism as also of St. Romwall St. Bruno St. Francis and St. Dominick that Bellarmine confesses those orders to be instituted by the inspir ation of the holy Ghost Here the author shows himself a Typhaeus or terrae filius indeed If this be a fair way I know not what is a foul one Is the inspiration of the Holy Ghost the fanaticism here spoken of or is one of them a fair way to infer and conclude the other What a kind of desperate talk is this is the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and fanaticism all one with Bellarmin or is it all one and the same thing with Mr. Stillingfleet He does not express himself here any further in this business but leaves us in our amazement to think what we please But could good St. Bennet ever expect to hear such words spoken of him in our island of England so much illustrated by his children for so many ages together in which time have resorted to his Monasteries millions of pious souls leaving father and mother and all pleasures honours dignities and pride of this weak and short and sinful life unto their more sincere and endless bliss Must St. Romwal and St. Bruno those retired Baptists and fathers of the renowned Camaldulensians and Chartreux Monks must St. Dominick that patriarch of piety and zeal towards all mens salvation must St. Francis full of God Francis the meek the poor beadsman and intercessor for all mankind in whom Jesus himself our blessed Lord seemed again to live and breath and bleed afresh must these and such like men whom former protestants themselves have so much honored that in their very heat of controversie against the Church they have upon consideration of so many shining stars as it were stopt their career to give them their due respects be boldly and without fear now sirnamed fanaticks in these our last and worse days what will become of Gospel if such words as these be not permitted onely but applauded farewel all Christianity But how does this man prove in general that both themselves and their orders were fanatical because Bellarmin confesses that they were instituted by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost Abominable stuff who can hear it Let us see then how he fastens fanaticism to each of them in particular And we may expect here to find some mention of their extreme mortification and penitential life their chastity and warching their patience and abnegation of their wills their prayer and incessant praises of God their retiredness and silence their humility and punctual obedience their sweet and edifying conversation their profound meditation extasies and love of God and pâ—ous consummation of their lives at their last hour and other such like graces which tradition and writings have left unto after ages for our encouragement and pattern § 9. St. Gregory saith he writes of St. Bennet that he was a hater of all human learning that he lived in a cave that he conquered lust by rolling himself among thorns and nettles that he drove away by the sign of the Cross a black devil that disturbed a Monk at his prayers that when any Monk did eat out of his sight he perceived it that he discovered Riggo in a Kings habit to be no King that he knew the secrets of the Divinity and beheld his sister Scholasticas soul going to heaven This is all he says of St. Bennet and he tells it us out of the writings of St. Gregory one of the best and learnedest prelates that have ever sate in St. Peters Chair But what St. Gregory delivers in a sober grave discourse he speaks in a mock phrase and brings no more of his life unto light than what himself can laugh at But first this is not the hundredth part of St. Bennets life Secondly all this put together infers not fanaticism which is the business we look after For here is no resisting authority under a pretence of a new way of religion The Religion of St. Bennet was our Catholick religion the precepts and counsels hopes and promises of Gods holy
Religion but on the contrary a tenour and rule of life drawn out of Gospel and confirmed by his own Prelate and Ecclesiastical Superiour The ways of fanaticks fanaticism are quite contrary to this Much less have we here any resistance of Authority but a submission to Authority and an humble expectation of their approbation and licence He must surely think our Kingdom of England to be much alienated from the Kingdom of God if he hope to perswade them that love of poverty neglect of worldly wealth and humane literature charity to the poor divine revelations powerful preaching against sin melting affections towards God and a rule of life drawn out of Gospel is fanaticisme He will be a very dull reader who will not hence conclude that our twelve Apostles were the first and chiefest fanaticks in the world And this our wits too much prone to loosness and atheism will greedily enough and nimbly infer and perhaps rejoyce that they have an Atheist in Print to propagate their infidelity Atheism loves not lonelines but is then most secure when the company is greatest But it will be here objected why then did St. Bennet St. Francis and St. Dominick make themselves new rules Is not this a new religion Sir although a Catholick cannot easily be so ignorant as to ask any such question as this is yet because it may be the straw at which Dr. Still stumbles who as in this his whole book he speaks like a Child so for ought I know he may understand like a Child I say therefore that a new rule is so far from a new religion that the Gospel can do little good without it For the counsels and precepts of Gospel whereby our souls are to be sanctified and ordered to our final end are all general and abstracted from any circumstance of time or place or measure or manner to the end they may be indifferent to the many conditions professions and imployments of mankind in their several states and ages Watching fasting works of charity mortification of sensuality continence repentance administration of Sacraments and the various like good things commended to us in our holy Gospel are so prescribed and counselled us that the manner the when the where how often how long and other such like circumstances without which those rules and counsels cannot be brought down to execution and practâ—ce are not specified Therefore hath the Catholâ—ck Church brought down some of these things unto individual circumstances when she appointed rites and times for Sacraments set holy days for people to meet together in their meditations and prayers set times for fasts others for confession others for Communion some for rejoycing in our Lord some for mourning and doing pennance so much and in such a manner as might well consist with the generality of the Catholick world But because neither is this sufficient for our daily progress unless people considering their own particular occasions and the lettanees which may occur more in one hour of the day then another ether set themselves a further rule for their daily piety and particular ordering of their houses or follow the direction herein of some wiser and better man Hence it is that so many rules have issued forth in the Christian world by which some people have governed their own private houses accommodating them in the best wise they could unto their affairs and others have quite retired out of the world to serve God more perfectly all their life according to this or that approved rule in a more full observance of it under Monastical obedience This is the motive nature and end of so many rules in the Church of God whereof some suit best with one complexion and some with another And all of them tend unto the bringing down of Gospel unto a constant practice And what Christian soever sets himself no such rule nor follows any must needs live a loose and careless if not a wicked life although he should have the whole Gospel by heart and be able to speak it all without book If the exact lives and pious rules of St. Bennet St. Francis St. Dominick St. Basil St. Brunâ— St. Romwall and such like men were printed together in our English tongue with the pictures of their Religious men met together either in their Refectory Schools or Quire this one sight would I am confident more move my good Protestant Country-men who are daily abused with Ministerial lies against us then any one book of controversie can do I will only set down here the one rule of St. Francis according to which his religious disciples are regulated all their life time throughout the world whereby either your self Sir or any other may judge whether he be worthily called either fool or fanatick St. Francis his Rule Chap. 1. THe rule and life of Fryar minours is this To observe the holy Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord living in obedience without property of goods and in chastity Brother Francis doth promise obedience and reverence unto Bishop Honorius his Lord and to his Successors Canonically installed and to the Roman Church And be other Fryars bound to obey Brother Francis and his Successors Ch. 2. If any shall be willing to take this life and shall therefore present themselves to our Brothers let them be sent to the Provincial Ministers who may only and none besides them have power to admit them The Ministers must be diligent to examine them about Catholick Religion and Church Sacraments And if they believe these things and will faithfully confess them and firmly observe them to the end and either have no Wives or those Wives if any they have are entered into Monasteries or by the authority of the Bishop of the Diocesse are dismist a vow of continence now solemnly made and their said Wives be of that age that there can arise no suspicion of them let the Ministers then speak unto them the word of holy Gospel that they go and sell all their goods and bestow them upon the Poor Which thing if they cannot be able to do their good will in this part may suffice And let the Brothers beware and their Ministers too that they be not solicitous about the temporal goods of these men that they may freely dispose those things of their own as our Lord shall inspire them And if Counsel be required the Ministers have leave to send them unto some men fearing God by whose advice they may bestow their goods upon the Poor After this they may grant them their vest of probation namely two tunicks without a capuce and a girdle and drawers and a caparoon down to the girdle unless the Ministers shall otherwise think fit according to God After the year of probation is ended let them be received unto obedience promising ever to observe this life and rule And in no wise shall it be lawful for them to go out of this religion according to the command of my Lord our chief Bishop because according to
that may be contrary to their own soul and our rule and the brothers who are subjects must remember that for God they have denied their own wills and therefore do I strongly command them that they do obey their Ministers in all things which they have promised our Lord to observe and are not contrary to their own soul and our rule And where ever our brothers be who shall perceive and know that they are not able to observe the rule punctually unto their Ministers ought they and may they have recourse and the Ministers must charitably and chearfully receive them and show so great familiarity towards them that they may speak to them and act as Maisters to their servants for so it ought to be that ministers be the servants of all the brothers And now I admonish and exhort in our Lord Jesus Christ that our brothers beware of all pride vain glory envy covetousness care and solicitude of this world of detraction also and murmuring And let not the illiterate care to learn letters but let them heed what they ought to desire above all things to have the spirit of our Lord and his holy operation in them to pray always unto God with a pure heart and to have humility and patience in persecutions and sickness and to love those who persecute us for our Lord saith Love your enemies pray for such as persecute and slander you blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven and he who persevers to the end shall be safe Ch. 11. I do strongly command all our brothers that they keep no suspicious company or talk with women and that they enter not into the Monasteries of Nuns excepting onely such unto whom a special licence is allowed by the See Apostolick nor that they be Godfathers to men or women least by this occasion any scandal arise either of the brothers or amongst them Ch. 12. What brother soever by Gods inspiration shall have a will to go amongst the Sarazens and other infidels let him demand licence of his Minister Provincial And let not the Ministers give licence to any but such as they shall see fit to be sent Moreover I do enjoyn the Ministers by obedience that they ask of my Lord our Pape a Cardinal of the Roman Church who may be governour protectour and correctour of the Brotherhood that always subject to the feet of the same holy Roman Church we may stable in Catholick faith observe poverty humility and the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ which we have firmly promised This is the rule of St. Francis and his gray Fryars wherein are apparently all the perfect lineaments of a good sound Catholick Christian but of fanaticisme nothing at all Nor can I possibly tell why he should ascribe fanaticisme to persons wholly Evangelical resigned humble meek spiritual men unless perhaps because some one vision or other is written to have happened to one or other of them in their life And this may seem strange and incredible indeed to carnal men who do never really and heartily converse with God but to others who are as much spiritual as they are carnal it is no such great a novelty witness our holy Apostles and Prophets who had them frequently I cannot tell whether our English fanaticks such I mean as are called so do ever pretend any of these visions if they do they are not fanaticks because of their visions but because they are pretended only and false and Dr. Still does neither say nor go about to prove that these visions were false or so much as that they were frequent and familiar in their life And if one or other such peculiar visite from God either by vision or revelation may conclude a man to be fanatical farewel all religion both Hebrew and Christian for the sounders and teachers of both were familiarly absort in God which Dr. Still derides here in St. Francis and visited by him in apparitions revelations and visions continually § 12. Let me Sir in this paragraf acquaint you that when I first at your request undertook this work not much pleasing to my hand which uses a pen with much dâ—fficulty my mâ—nd and thoughts were in a manner wholly then taken up with this one Chapter of the Doctors book wherein I intended to be most copious not thinking to meet with such a multitude of impertinences and falsehoods as have now stopped me at every turn I must therefore be shorter then I intended and do like Whittingtons cat which set down in a house swarming with mice and rats could do no more then crush the heads now of one and then of another all day long for want of leisure to eat up any Some things I thought to say of these religious founders and some of the orders founded by them Concerning the founders I meant first to set down the miraculous lives of these Saints their profound humility patience continence and poverty their contempt of this vain transitory world consisting notwithstanding with a most cordial affection respect and love which they bore to all mankind their continual converse with the God of spirits their strange joy in contumelies and other injuries which is a perfection very few can arrive unto in this life their carnest aspirations after the fight of Jesus and his Heavenly Kingdom with their glorious triumphâ—ng death Of all which we have as clear and certain tradition as if they had lived but yesterday And Dr. Still hath been picking as it seems amongst those fragrant relicks not with any spirit of a Christian either to love or imitate them but to fill up like an adder the venom of his own breast and then to disgorge himself into a book 2. I had it then in my heart to discover at large the various growth of Saints neither uniformly answerable to one another nor yet to themselves in the several ages of their life and yet all of them friends of God and acceptable to him in the course and consummation of their lives Nor is to be expected that men incompassed with the like infirmities we be our selves should in all the parts either of their whole life or any one year or month therein be still alike either devout or joyous or indisturbed What is born of flesh is flesh inclining to sensual things and unwilling to be restrained subject to cold hunger and several infirmities and therefore averst from kneeling fasting contemplation especially if it be long and frequent and still leaning towards its own delight and satisfaction On the other side what is born of spirit is spirit still flying upwards towards the God of spirits in whom is most permanent and solid blisse And these two must be allowed sometimes in us to struggle and get the mastery at least to come to such equitable conditions that the ballance may hang straight No man is suddenly made naught neither is holiness the work of a day there appears in Corn first a