no man can maintain it by Truth And therefore to bring a true Argument against us in defense of it would be to bring an impertinent one For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Truth always agrees with never clashes with Truth as Aristotle has noted And therefore it is not to be imputed to the weakness of my Antagonist but of his Cause that with undeniable evidence I have perpetually confuted his Answers though I believe he has brought as good as the Cause is capable of and managed them and intermingled them with such circumstantial Rhetorical humours slights and tricks to make something of nothing and to make a show of Answering and confuting me that I must freely confess he is a complete Artist in that Roman Sophistry whereby they become cunning Anglers for poor deceivable Souls And thus much in short upon his Title-page and Advertisement We come now to his Introduction which I shall cast into so many Paragraphs and so Answer them in order Paragraph the first Dr. Henry More is a Person whose Learning and Parts have brought him into a name among the Professors of the refined Arts and Sciences Fame speaks him a great Philosopher And his Publick works are said to avouch no less Nay some have passed so far in favour of his Character as to term him The great Restorer of the Platonick Cabbala And truly if this be so I conceive the Gentleman had done himself a great deal of right if he had still kept to his own Element for as much as his late unlucky ingaging in Controversial Disputes cannot but prove a blot to his former undertakings For the Learned world must needs acknowledge that Dr. More the Controvertist is much degenerated from Dr. More the Philosopher The Answer Here observe the art and smooth cunning of my Adversary who drives at these two things First to make show of a great deal of equity and candor of judgment in acknowledging notwithstanding the Controversie betwixt us that I am not altogether nothing in matters of Philosophy but have writ with some success and acceptance on such Subjects that he thus seeming so impartial and indifferent a man and so readily acknowledging any thing well done by me he may the more easily be believed where he gives judgment against me and says That though I be something succesfull indeed in Philosophy yet I am very unlucky and unskilfull in Theological Disputes a tolerable Philosopher but a very mean Controvertist in points of Divinity The other drift is to make me if it were possible to melt and relent that I have thus lessened my credit in the world by my unfortunately ingageing in Controversies betwixt us and the Church of Rome as if he bemoaned my misfortune therein who if I had kept to my own Element of Philosophy might have been gratious and acceptable with all the world with the Pontifician party as well as vvith the reformed and kept up my Credit in force with all when as now I have hugely impaired my repute at least with those of his Party But to the first I Answer That though this Intimation of his own Impartiality be craftily enough managed yet that general acknowledged Testimony of my suffering in Philosophy is a witness against himself For if I have been so usefull and succesfull in my Philosophical demonstrations of the existence of God and Immaterial Beings in the vindication of Divine Providence in the proving of the Immortality of the Soul and in finding the ancient Iudaical Cabbala which the Platonick Philosophy is so near akin to so artificially couched in the Text of Moses and the like all which tend to the honour and safety of the Christian Religion the same clearness of sight which helps me to discern and judge of these things cannot but inable me to judge also in those concerning points that are betwixt you and us As that eye that can see one colour right is not confined to that colour but by the same faculty and soundness of sight can see another And it is more my impartialness and unprejudicedness than any thing else that makes me see so clearly and so truely in any thing As to the second my Adversary has suggested no more nor so much as I have diverse times reflected upon my self and was well aware of before I meddled with these kind of Controversies namely that it would lessen my repute and favour with many But if I seek to please men how shall I be the servant of Iesus Christ as the Apostle speaks Gal. 1. 10. And as for the business of Repute and Esteem in the world I thank God I am convinced even from my very Heart and Soul that I ought to be utterly dead to all Self-joy and Self-gloriation and therefore if any thing happen cross to that life that ought to be mortified in me if it moves me not I am at peace if it does it is yet the gift of God to me and I am admonished thereby to advance furthâ—r into that death by the power and Spirit of Christ that will at length lay asleep all such disturbances in my Soul for ever And there are greater matters than the esteem of men which I am not insensible but have always been well aware that I run the hazard of and such as that wisdom which is according to the Spirit of this world sets the greatest esteem of all upon But this I thank God could never affright me into the neglect of so undispensable a duty as the declaring so important truth so exceeding clear to my self and of so unspeakable consequence for the Church of God and for the settling of a true grounded peace in the Christian world That there might be truely one flock and one Sheepfold and Jesus Christ the true Shepherd over all which cannot be till such Barbarous and Idolatrous Laws and Instituâ—es be reversed as obtain still in the Papacy But for my part my great Fort and Shelter against all the Inconveniences I expose my self to by my just liberty of speech is to keep as near as I can in that frame of spirit which our Saviour commends to us in that Precept of his Matth. 5. 44. Love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despightfully use you and persecute you Father forgive them for they know not what they do Luk. 23. 34. This is the Sanctuary I desire to take shelter in even in that ineffably profound and humble Spirit of unself-interessed Love which I infinitely prefer before all the keenness of wit and crafty prudence of the Spirit of this world that so subtily shifts for it self which I envy no mans use or injoyment of may but my Soul sufficiently incorporate with this lovely Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ may that be the lot of mine inheritanec both in this life and for ever For this is that which is truely invincible indeed and will easily put by any such thrust as my
In which there is not onely a similitude of Signification but of real and personal likeness But this was onely to bring in that sly saâ—ing He who honours man as he is the image of God honours God in his Image Whenas there is no man honours man in reference to God as you pretend to honour the Image of Christ terminating your Worship in him But we do civil honour onely to men and in bowing to them onely signifie our inclination and readiness to do them all good offices of love service and in the mean time acknowledge there is that in them that is worthy of civil honour and esteem And lastly I say as to the pretense of specifick similitude of Figure it signifies no more as to the intended honour of an Individual then if there were no similitude at all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For not to signiâ—ie one determinate thing is to signifie nothing as Aristotle says But by vertue of the direction of our intention we may make any thing signifie any thing To the second I Reply That if the Case the Doctor puts be more than poâ—â—â—ible then it is probable or possible so that he yields what I would have But I will not yield him that he has brought a fit instance or that he has spoke right in that Instance For neither were these Cherubims â—ntended for the symbolical presence of Angels but of God nor was any honour done to the Cherubims or their Prototypes although here again he slily would infuse this poyson of Idolatry into his ignorant Party though with a reproach to God and Moses His Answer to the sixth Paragraph To the first part of this Paragraph he Answers That the Images of the Saints represent them such as they were upon Earth onely with an additional mark of a Crown or Lawrel to signifie their triumphant state in Glory And then That an Image may be like to a separate Soul as well as to an Angel or Cherubim he would infer from that Opinion of the Platonists who make separate Souls invested with aereall or aethereal Vehicles as well as the Angels To the second he Answers that if a terrestrial Image cannot represent that Person who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God-man then neither can a terrestrial eye represent him and so the Apostles whilest living did never see that Person who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God-man which is no less then blasphemy as implying that that Person called Iesus Christ whom the Apostles dayly beheld with their eyes was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God-man The Reply To the first I Reply That unless my Adversary here suppose what he can never make good that they have the true effigies of the Saints such as they were upon Earth he is never the near as to this first curiosity whether he phancy them represented such as they were on Earth or such as they are now in Heaven But being Religious Worship is not due to them till they be canonized to represent them such as they were on Earth is to represent them in Order to Religious Worship such as they were before they were capable of Religious Worship And the Lawrel and Crown he talks of those are not on their Images or Statues but onely a Glory over their Heads in their Pictures so far as I remember of which the genuine signification is That that picture stands for them such as they are now in glory and there is the same sense of their Statues and of their Pictures Moreover his supposal is false and contrary to his own Assertion before when he asserts that the Images of Cherubims or Angels are like in Figure to the Angels themselves as if there were Ox-headed and Lyon-headed Angels And lastly suppose we should be so courteous as to grant him the doctrine of the Platonists that Souls separate have aereal or aethereal Vehicles what would this advantage him they allowing no settled Figure to them And if there were an humane Figure allowed when we have no knowledge what was their individual terrestrial Figure how shall we know what is their aereal or aethereal And though the Figure was known what terrestrial matter can express that lively enravishing spiritual beauty that is in those lucid Vehicles So that though the Figure were 〈◊〉 the form which is the life of the Figure would be quite lost and be nothing near so like the separate Soul as the dead carcass of the greatest beauty on Earth after four days lying in the grave would be to the said party when alive So that my Adversary in his Answer to this first part seems to indulge to humours and fetches of wit rather than to reason soberly and so as to prove a personal likeness betwixt the Saints and their Images And this in like sort may be said of his Answer to the second part which is indeed an odd unexpected fetch of wiâ— but hugely rude and harsh that would pretend to fix on my Argument the horrid crime of blasphemy when it is in truth the asserting the transcendent excellency of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Christ not the denying of it which were an hainous piece of blasphemy against the Son of God indeed I say therefore that when I ask what terrestrial Image can possibly represent him that is truely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God-man that no mans mind that is not very extravagant could ever phancy that I meant any other Image then what is external to our sight which that in our eye is not Again it is manifest that I mean it of some Image that represents the absent and invisible Humanity of Christ by reason of its absence and not such an Image as a Parelion or a Paraselene are that do not represent the Sun or Moon but by vertue of the presence of those Luminaries Nor did tâ—e Image of Christ in the eyes of the Apostles or other men represent Christ any otherwise then by 〈◊〉 of his Presence But it is plain to any that will not cavil that I understand my own words of such Images as represent the absent as the Statue of Caesar of Virgil and the like And then lastly I flatly deny that the Image of an external Object in the eye is terrestrial For the Image is not in the nervous bottom of the eye but butts onely upon it as the Images let in upon white paper through a Hole in a dark room That Image is not fixed nor subjected in the paper but in the ethereal matter that touches the paper And so the Image is in the ethereal matter that touches the bottom of the eye not in the bottom of the eye it self But ethereal matter is not terrestrial and therefore this no terrestrial Image Unto all which I add That it does not follow but that though the Image in the eye call it terrestrial or ethereal had not the adequate or principal power of representing Christ God-man to the Apostles when he was on Earth yet the presence of
in wickedness but besides their pretense of singing them out of Purgatory by mercenary Masses and pecuniary Redemptions by Pardons and Indulgences and I know not what Trumperies they allure men to come into their Church as having that great Store and Treasury of the Merits of Holy-men and women their works of Supererogation which they pretend to have the keeping and disposing of So that a poor Soul that is bankrupt of herself and has no stock of Good works of her own may sufficiently be furnished for love or money by the Merchants of this Storehonse Which besides that it is a blasphemous Derogation to the Merits of Christ is the grossest Falshood that ever was uttered For these Holy men as they are called and Virgins were God wot themselves most miserable Sinners and died in most horrid Idolatries as dying in the Practices of that Church and he that comes to that Church does necessarily become a gross Idolater himself besides that he sets to his seal and makes himself accessory to all that innocent bloud the bloud of those many hundred thousands of Martyrs for the Protestant Truth which that Woman of bloud that sits on the Seven Hills has with the most execrable Circumstances imaginable so frequently murthered So that a Soul otherwise passable of her self would be necessarily drown'd in this one foul Deluge of Guilt so far is she from having any relief or advantage by reconciling her self to the Church of Rome 20. Wherefore who-ever thou art that hast any sense or solicitude for thy future state and Salvation believe not this Woman of subtil lips and a deceitfull heart and give no credit to her Fictions and high Pretensions but the more she goes about to magnifie her self do thou humble her the more by shewing her her ugly hue in the glass of the Holy Scriptures If she boast that she is that holy Ierusalem Psal. 122. 3. a City at Unity within it self whenas the rest of the World are so full of Sects and Factions tell her that she is that carnal Ierusalem wherein Christ in his true Members hath been so barbarously persecuted and murthered and that the Stones of her buildings are no living stones but held together by a mere iron violence and the Cement of her walls tempered with the large effusion of innocent bloud forasmuch as she is that two-horned Beast that gave life to the Image of the Beast Apoc. 13. and caused him to decree that as many as would not obey his Idolatrous Edicts should be slain This is the power of your Unity which is not from the Spirit of God but from the spirit of the Devil who was a Murtherer from the beginning But the Division of us Protestants is both a sign of our sincere search after the Truth and a more strong Testimony against you of Rome in that we being so divided amongst our selves yet we so unanimously give sentence against you your Miscarriages and Crimes being so exceeding gross that no free eye but must needs discern them 21. If she vaunts of her Antiquity give her enough of it and tell her she derives her pedigree from that great Dragon the old Serpent Apoc. 12. 9. that is called the Devil and Satan that Murtherer of mankind Ye are of your father the Devil saith our Saviour and the works of your father will ye do Iohn 8. 44. We grant that the Visage and Lineage of your Church reaches even beyond the times of the Apostles the two-horned Beast reviving the Image of the Pagan Beast the great red Dragon by bringing up again his old bloudy Persecutions and Idolatries It suffices us that our Church began with the Apostles If she glories in her Vniversality and in her large Territories tell her she is that GREAT City which spiritually is called Sodom and Aegypt where our Lord was crucified Apoc. 11. And that she is Babylon the GREAT the mother of Fornications and the Abominations of the Earth If she boast of the power of the Keys and of Sacerdotal Absolution tell her that he that is holy he that is true he that has the Key of David he that openeth and no man shuâ—teth and shutteth and no man openeth Apoc. 3. that is to say our Lord Iesus Christ will never part with these Keys to his inveterate Enemy that notorious Man of Sin or Antichrist If she spread before thee her goodly wares of mercenary Masses of Pardons and Indulgences of the mutuatitious Good works of their pretended Holy men and women or the Wealth and externall Glories of their Church and varieties of rich Preferments and Dignities say unto her that she is that City of Trade of whom it is written that no man buyeth her merchandise any more and again Alas alas that great City that was cloathed in fine linnen and purple and scarlet and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls For in one hour so great riches are come to nought For her Merchants were the great men of the Earth and by her Sorceries were all Nations deceived And in her was found the bloud of Prophets and of Saints and of all that were slain upon the Earth Apoc. 18. 22. If she would amaze thee with the stories of the wonderfull Miracles done by her tell her that she is that two-horned Beast Apoc. 13. 13 14. that doth great wonders and that deceiveth them that dwell on the Earth by means of those Miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the ten-horn'd Beast or that false Prophet working Miracles Apoc. 19. 20. and deceiving them that receive the mark of the Beast and worship his Image who together with the Beast is to be taken and cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone or lastly that Man of Sin and Son of perdition 2 Thess. 2. 9. whos 's coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders If she would inveagle thee with her pretenses of Infallibility tell her that she is that Woman Iezebel Apoc. 2. 20. that calleth her self a Prophetess or the Prophet Balaam Apoc. 2. 14. that insnared the Israelites in Idolatry and that very false Prophet that together with the Beast is to be cast alive into the lake of burning brimstone Apoc. 19. 20. 23. And lastly if she would gull thee with that specious and much-affected Title of Holy Church tell her that the Spirit of Truth in the Divine Oracles let her commend her self as much as she pleases gives no such Character of her but quite contrary declaring the See of Rome to be the Seat of Satan Apoc. 2. 13. and their Church his Synagogue Apoc. 3. 9. the Pope and his Clergy to be Balaam the son of Bozor Apoc. 2. 13 14. who loved the wages of unrighteousness and who was the Murtherer of Christ's faithfull Martyr Antipas to be that Woman Iezebel who calls her self a Prophetess but was indeed a Sorceress and a murtherer of the true Prophets of the Lord Apoc. 2. 20.