Them They were contented to refer the Matter to John Roderiguez Grand Vicar of Alcala who told Ignatius That the Juridical Information which had been made was much in his Favour and That he might continue his Functions for the Service of his Neighbour So Bouhours without the least mention of any such Clause touching Extravagant Methods of Religion Soon after he is clapt into the Inquisition a Second Time for instilling foolish Principles into his Hearers But Was he not by publick Sentence freed from the Imputation I thought it was not a Crime to be Accus'd but to be Guilty yet You confound both Though at this rate our Saviour's Reputation suffers who was Indicted of as heavy Crimes as ever Ignatius was When he was remov'd to Salamanca both Him and his Disciples were put in Chains by the Inquisition there as Hereticks and Seditious Persons and not Absolv'd but upon condition of Preaching no more Certainly Sir You imagine your self in Lucian's Island of Dreams or that all the World is asleep beside your self or so enamour'd with your great Abilities and Integrity as to embrace every Falsity dropt from your Pen as Eternal Verities I grant he was clapt in Prison and You that he was Absolv'd Hear the Sentence After Two and Twenty Days of Imprisonment the Master and his Disciples were cited before the Judges to hear their Sentences read by which they were declared to be good Men and their Doctrine to be sound What could Innocence desire more They are further permitted to speak of Heavenly Things and to instruct the People as much as they please With what Face then dare you averr and then cite Bouhours to second your Imposture That he was Acquitted upon Condition of Preaching no more A Man would imagine you cited Authors only to corrupt them or to render your Forgeries more palpable Soon after his Arrival at Paris he is accus'd to the Inquisitors for seducing young Scholars but by the Intercession of Friends dismiss'd Good Sir and was not the same laid at our Saviour's Door Were not the Apostles hurry'd before Tribunals on the same Account They were all stil'd Seducers for disswading People from being seduc'd by the charming Flatterings of the World And the Crime of St. Ignatius was of the same Nature This the Inquisitor was convinc'd of and therefore Acquitted the Accus'd not by the Intercession of Friends as you were pleas'd to insinuate but out of a Motive of Justice So that in Conclusion all these Accusations which you alledge as corroborating Proofs do not add one Grain to the Weight of your Arguments Nay they rather Extenuate them though they add a notable Increase to your Guilt and demonstrate to the World at one view both the Excess of your Folly and the Hainousness of your Forgeries From this universal Contempt of Ignatius in his Life-time c. it may be farther evinc'd That all the Reports of his Miracles are absolutely false May it so Why Sir At this rate our Blessed LORD was the greatest Impostor that ever breath'd For I am sure neither St. Ignatius nor any other Man since the World stood lay under a greater Contempt than He. Nay Jeremy at this wild rate of Arguing was a petty Cheat since I am sure He felt as heavy Effects of his Country-Men's I will not say Contempt but Fury as St. Ignatius did of Christians But Sir If your Antecedent be deny'd What will become of your Consequence and all your Erroneous Deductions Yet so it is Venture once more on Bouhours and you will find that the greatest Men living had a Tenderness for his Person and stood in Admiration of his Prudence And if he were condemn'd 't was only by Those who could not be sufficiently blam'd themselves Wherefore this Argument not being able to concur the least to your Design I will examine your General Considerations First To what purpose should GOD work so many Miracles in the midst of Christian Countries many Ages after the Faith had been fully settled in them Answ Might not the refractory Jews have objected the same against the Mission of Jeremy Might not the Gentleman by the same Rule stop St. Austin's Mouth when he recounts several Miracles on his own Knowledge The Christian Religion was then fully settled So that if you will inform me to what purpose GOD did work Miracles in those Christian Countries I will requite your Civility by returning you a Reason why GOD did it in These Secondly Were those Countries devoid of True Religion Answ By no means But what then shew me any Reason or Authority why GOD's Power is so chain'd up that it cannot Act but according to the Rules prescrib'd by ordinary Providence in a Christian Nation Thirdly Was the Church of Rome at that Time grievously corrupted with Errors and Superstitions No Sir What will you infer It remains therefore that GOD should perform all these Miracles meerly in Testimony of the Extraordinary Sanctity of Ignatius to manifest his Favour to him and procure to him Honour and Esteem among all Christians Answ You are quite out of the way and wholly mistaken in your Arithmetick GOD might have had many Motives which you have pass'd by All worthy of Him and not at all contrary to his Excellency or the Imperfection of our Nature For you may remember that although even Then the Roman Faith was as Pure as when it deserv'd so large an Encomium from the Mouth of the Apostle who was little vers'd in the Science of Flattery Yet the New-inspir'd Prophets of Germany call'd it in Question These Men as Spiritual as the basest Sensuality could render them resolv'd to make room for their Lusts by rending themselves from her Jurisdiction who oppos'd them and so pretended to purify her Faith by the most enormous Crime Rebellious Apostacy Novelty and Liberty were fair Baits for a Populace to swallow and then fine Promises of a Paradise Hereafter and of a Mahometical Heaven Here were too strong Temptations for a sensual German to overcome Our English Laity you know felt the Comfort of Abbey-Lands and the Clergy of fair Wives So that the most Considerable Part of the Northern Provinces set up a Religion of their own Coining or to speak more properly every one preach'd his own Dreams for Divine Revelations Now in such a distracted Posture of the Church Was it a proceeding unworthy of GOD to point out his True Church by Miracles and by the Sanctity of Those who were Members of it This was the Method GOD took to Establish Christianity and to reduce the Rebellious Jews from their Apostacy And if it was not then a Proceeding unworthy of GOD to condescend so low as to have Recourse to his Omnipotence for the reclaiming of Sinners I do not conceive why it should be in Ignatius's Time when the same Cause was too too visible Again Why could not GOD work Miracles for the Comfort as well as Encouragement of the Faithful I see no Inconvience unless it were that
Church for promoting imaginary Enthusiasms and on St. Ignatius for practising them However though perchance his Buffooning Disease may be past cure yet for the disabusing those who possibly may be so far impos'd on as to take a meer Romance for a real Story I shall make a short Reply to a long Fable Though I am convinc'd indeed that Many may be pleas'd with the Slander yet Few will approve it and Fewer the Author The most Favourable perchance may rank him among the Merry Andrews But I am sure the more Judicious will place him among Those who profess little Religion and exercise less Virtue I do not intend in my Reply to follow this Gentleman so close by the Heels as he has done Dr. Stillingfleet for I find the greatest Part of his Calumnies long since wip'd-of in the Second Letter to A. B. But I will only touch those Accusations which either slipt by the Doctor 's Memory or were so notoriously false as he thought fit to conceal them SECT I. Whether St. Ignatius had the Qualities which the Author requires to make up a Phanatick AFter an Invective of Twenty Pages against Phanaticism and an Hundred Compliments to the Saints of the Catholick Church of which Mad Frenzical Brain-sick c. are the most endearing Epithetes as if the Gentleman had lost his Breath he stops of a suddain and thus very gravely reads the Indictment against St. Ignatius In forming this Inquiry I shall begin with the Qualities necessarily requisit to compleat an affected Enthusiast among which an ardent Desire of Glory and immoderate Ambition obtain the first place for none could prostitute the Dignity of his Nature to the Follies and Impertinencies of Enthusiasm deny to himself the common Benefits of Life and undergo Poverty Nakedness Hunger and a thousand other Inconveniences incident to that Profession if he were not transported with a violent Ambition I confess ingenuously that Pride is a necessary Ingredient to make a Phanatick but that such a Self-denial as you mention is incident to Men of that Profession is in my Opinion a most groundless Assertion No Man in England I believe is such a Recluse as not to be acquainted with some of that Perswasion and yet I dare affirm That no Body can point me out any considerable number of those Proselytes of Phanaticism who ever esteem'd Voluntary Poverty Nakedness Hunger and a Thousand other Inconveniences to be necessary Compliments of their Religion Indeed the Church of England seems to be convinc'd that a Renunciation of those Common Benefits of Life is an essential part of their Obligation and therefore mov'd with a Pious Indignation to see so Christian Duties laid aside thought fit some Years past to call straying Phanaticks to a severe Account for the Contempt of so laudable a Tenet She tormented their Bodies with loathsom Prisons for the good of their Souls drain'd their Purses with Weekly and Monthly Fines and in fine forc'd them to undergo Poverty Nakedness Hunger and a Thousand other Inconveniences incident to that Perswasion Nay the no less Provident than Pious Mother-Church went further She knew full well that Human Nature is frail and that Men are far more prone to Fall than to Rise and for this Reason She judges it most convenient to keep the Rod viz. the Penal Laws in her Hand that now and then with a gentle Lash She may admonish them of their Duties Poverty Nakedness c And 't is for this end too that She stickles for the Test lest poor Phanaticks by intruding themselves into gainful Offices should cut a new Channel for their Ambition to run in and pride rather in Opulence than in the wanâ— of the Common Benefits of Nature It being then no Principle of our English Phanaticks to feed their Ambition with such an Aversion from the Creature as rather to expose their naked Backs to publick View their Stomachs to the inward Knawings of a biting Hunger rather than enjoy it Without doubt your piercing Genius has found out a new Sect which Modesty commands you to conceal But to satisfie the Reader 's Curiosity and to contribute as much as I am able to the Increase of your Reputation and the Credit of that pure Church of which you are a spotless Member I shall communicate your Discovery that the World may be Witness as well of your Piety as of your Railery And that I may explain your Meaning without all Debate let the Reader take notice of your Words For none would prostitute the Dignity of his Nature c. deny to himself the common Benefits of Life and undergo Poverty c. if he were not transported with a violent Ambition So that if we do but form one Syllogism this new Discovery will lie at the Tail of it Those who deny themselves the common Benefits of Life who undergo Poverty c. have the first Quality to compleat an Enthusiast But The Apostles the Primitive Christians and to be short Christ himself did deny themselves the common Benefits of Life Ergo. Christ and his Apostles c. had the first Quality to compleat an Enthusiast This is a Discovery worthy indeed of a Julian or Porphyrius but for my Life I cannot find one Fig-leaf to cover your Impiety If it be a piece of Phanaticism to leave All for Christ's sake to obey our Great Master's Counsel we acknowledge the Accusation and plead Guilty But if it be a Crime of the first Magnitude to turn Christ's Life and his Doctrine into â—aileries Sir let me tell you You stand heavily guilty at God's Tribunal and will infallibly bear the smart of your Blasphemy in the next World unless you learn to repent in This. But perchance you will tell me That to quit all Worldly Pretensions to deny ones self the Common Benefits of Life meerly for Christ's sake is Praise-worthy But that St. Ignatius's Poverty sprung from a Principle as far different as Ambition is remote from Humility So 't is not precisely the Exterior Train of Self-Denial which qualifies him for a Phanatick but Interior Ambition Prove then Sir That Ambition was the fist Motive of all St. Ignatius's Austerities He is about it where he ushers in his Proof with a Division of Ambition to shew he loves to take things from the bottom Ignatius says he was in a most particular manner indu'd with this Heroick Quality and that both Natural and Acquir'd I suppose Sir the Natural Temper of a Man's Body is no more a Crime than the Natural Features of his Face because neither the One nor the Other falls under a Free Election which is a necessary Requisit to frame a Sin. So that the First Part of your Proof being null we must fall to the Examen of the Second This Natural Ambition of St. Ignatius was fomented and increased by his extraordinary Addiction to read Romances and the Lives of Saints p. 21. But it was the Reading of the Legends of Saints which finally compleated the Disease and render'd
That Faith. But if Zeal for our Church be a Crime our Adversaries must have Patience for there is no Hope of Repentance We glory in the Sin because we esteem it a Vertue And if any can disabuse us with Reason and Arguments we will thank them for the Favour But if they will needs endeavour to beat down our Zeal by accusing it to stop our Mouths with Morsels of Printed Paper upon my Word their Labour will prove extreamly unsuccessful I hope by the Grace of GOD we shall feel so great a Love for Christianity as to Forgive them so much Courage as to bear their most foul Aspersions without any other Concern than for our Adversaries Impiety We will never so far condescend to an Enemy as to revenge Wrongs done us upon our own Souls nor to be really Wicked because our back-Friends would have us be so Innocence I am sure stands for us and therefore we need not fear a Weak Defence unless it be our Misfortune to fall into the Hauds of Perjur'd Witnesses and of Old Ignoramus Juries for with such Persons Crimes pass current for Vertues and Innocence it self is a sufficient Ground to be brought in Guilty In fine I desire all not to be too forward to pass their Verdict against a Jesuite on the Authority of every Pamphlet which drops from the Print nay tho' you read in the Front Guli Needham with an Imprimatur We have seen His now Gracious Majesty declar'd Traytor in as great Formality and Titus Oats with the whole Inventory of Godly Narratives were usher'd-in with an Equal Solemnity Which being by the Publick Justice of the Nation null'd we ought to suspect Those which for the future shall be fram'd on the same Model To be seduc'd once may be a pardonable Weakness but to be drawn-in by every Malitious Sheet is a convincing Argument we are not unwilling to be Deceiv'd and whosoever is dispos'd to give Assent to every Lye without further Examen adopts them and so espouses the Sin as well as the Pain which will be Eternal in the Next VVorld unless he resolves to Repent in This. A VINDICATION OF St. IGNATIUS From the CHARGE of Phanaticism c. The INTRODUCTION AMong other Artifices where-with the Gentlemen of the Church of England recommend their Religion to ignorant and deluded Persons none has been more frequently made use of than the charging both our Church and its Members with such Crimes which derive their Being as well as Enormity from the inventive Brains of our Accusers The Badness of their Cause permits them not to descend into a Scrupulous Examination of the Merirs of it Every single Controversie hath been so often handled and so demonstratively determin'd against Them that it would be rash and disadvantagious to re-assume the Debate of those particular Questions Wherefore they have wisely judg'd it most secure for their Reputation to lay aside Reason and Authority and to take up no other Arms to defend their gasping Cause than Forgery and Railery the last Refuge of Desperado's To make my Charge good I will send my Reader to Two Pamphlets lately come out viz. The Art of Missionaries and The Enthusiasm of the Church of Rome In the First Forgery in the Second Impiety to call it no worse appear bare-fac'd in spight of Christianity For though indeed the Author of the Missionaries cites his Authorities yet many of them are of so profligate a Reputation that no Man who did not intend to put an Universal Cheat on Mankind would ever produce them but to condemn them A main Support of his Slanders is Dr. Burnet a Person long since out-law'd by his Country and hath not as yet learnt Repentance Nay he adds fresh Crimes to those of an older Date by flinging Dirt on his Sovereign and lending his Mercenary Pen to the Broachers of New Rebellions And shall he who flies in the very Face of his Prince be admitted as an Evidence against Catholick Subjects whom he professeth to abhor A great part of his other Authorities are of the same Stamp and Reputation only with this difference That Some at least have been burnt by the publick Hang-man and the Doctor 's with a great part of the Herd as yet only deserves the same Punishment In a word The Gentleman shou'd have taken into his List the Salamanca-Doctor's Narrative to make it compleat and to press his Accusation homer Now had this Pamphleteer first prov'd by credible Witnesses the Veracity of his Authors and withal been more sparing of his Billingsgate-Rhetorick his Accusation might have gain'd some Degree of Probability even in the Opinions of well-meaning Men till Catholicks had confuted it But first to Empanel a byass'd Jury and then to Condemn a Congregation of Men on its corrupt Verdict is so foul a Proceeding as not to be parallel'd but in the Transactions of Titus's Reign As for the other Gentleman Indeed he has taken a far more expedient way to bring our Religion into an Odium The Name of a Phanatick sounds harsh to an English-Man's Ear and therefore he doubted not but the very Imputation of Enthusiasm would raise the Hot-headed Mobile against us and turn the good Esteem of many Church-Protestants into an utter Execration of our Folly. The Reverend Dean of St. Pauls gave him the Plat-form of his Design and indeed all England could not afford him a more expert Master in the Science of Phanaticism For let People talk what they please Practice is the best Mistress and the Doctor wants not this Advantage When Phanaticism turn'd Trump it was the Doctor 's darling Religion and if we may guess at his Mind by the Fruit of his Brain his Writings Two fat Benefices are the chief Motives of Credibility which keep him in the Prelatick Communion Nay our Gentleman follows through his whole Pamphlet this Guide so close that he often treads on his Heels So that without any Injustice I may change the Tittle Page and christen the whole Book The Second Edition of Dr. Stillingfleet 's Folly. But to do him Justice I must inform my Reader That he hath heightned the Doctor 's Railery as well as Impiety and as much as I can guess hath spent so much Time in turning over Don Quixot as to have left none for the Scripture For had he the least insight into that Sacred Book or the least Tincture of Christianity he never durst have exercis'd his ridiculing Vein on the Sacred Counsels contain'd in that Holy Volume nor plac'd those Pious Men who follow'd them on the same Level with Phanaticks But what will not Men do when Passion blinds Reason When the pleasant Charms of Revenge cast Conscience into a Lethargy when they have Light enough to see their Errors and no Resolution to correct them Would the Gentleman peruse his own Lines in cold Blood I am perswaded he would blush at the Sallies of his Passion and confess he deserv'd those reviling Epithets he has so liberally flung on the Catholick
Providence to find out all Articles of Faith is an Inward Light and an Immediate Revelation This I understand by Phanaticism And if you can prove St. Ignatius guilty of this Folly I will fling up the Cause if you cannot Justice obliges you to a speedy Repentance First For having so abus'd the World with loud Clamours of strange Discoveries concerning the Church of Rome 's Superstitious Practices and Enthusiastick Extravagancies Secondly For having betray'd your own Conscience in the Sight of GOD whil'st blind Temerity and intoxicating Fury guided your Pen to wound the Reputation of the Saints in the Judgment of Men. You therefore affirm St. Ignatius to have been a Phanatick because he pretended to Divine Visions and Illuminations and then you draw up an Inventory of some Apparitions and Ecstacies recounted in his Life which takes up a considerable Part of your Pamphlet All which you are pleas'd to attribute to the Effects of a strong Imagination and of a weak and disturb'd Brain But shall any ones Judgment be so byass'd as to take this for a Confutation Would any Man take bare Assertions for solid Reasons or false Aspersions for real Crimes your Discourse is I grant most perswasive But who-ever takes the pains to sift it will be able to find nothing but Scum above and Malice below Sir For my part I know no Catholick of so easie a Belief as presently to swallow down every fictitious Story for a real Miracle They measure their Assent by the Rules of Prudence Where the Authority is weak their Belief is suitable where strong and evident their Assent is without Hesitation In fine They always are of Opinion That to Believe All and to Deny All are Extreams equally reprehensible Now produce some Arguments which prove credibly That the Illuminations and Visions ascrib'd to St. Ignatius were but the Effect of a discompos'd Brain of a strong Imagination and disorderly Fancy and if I cannot oppose more weighty Reasons to the contrary I 'll fling up my Cards The only Ground of your Scruple as far as I can learn is this If indeed Ignatius receiv'd a perfect Knowledge of the Christian Religion c. How came it to pass that for many Years after he was still esteemed a Fool and an Ideot You have put a pretty Sophism in the Mouth of a Jew or a Turk If JESVS CHRIST was GOD How came it to pass that He was still esteem'd for a Fool and an Ideot To make us believe that such an Opinion was not a Popular Noise only you tell us Vpon a particular Examen by the Inquisitor of Alcala and Arch-Bishop of Toledo he was adjudg'd not to have been sufficiently instructed in Matters of Religion You might as well have quoted your darling Romance Don Quixot as Bouhours and found as much to your Purpose in the One as in the Other For Bouhours in the Book cited mentions not one Word of St. Ignatius's appearing before the Inquisitor much less of a particular Examen And therefore any puny Logician may infer out of that Examen in Nubibus That you are far more meanly instructed in the Rules of Truth than St. Ignatius in Matters of Religion Indeed Bouhours tells us That the Great Vicar cast him in Prison upon the Account of the Indiscreet Fervor of Two Ladies abscrib'd by Dr. Cirol to the Perswasions of St. Ignatius and told him That not being a Divine he should abstain from explicating to the People the Mysteries of Religion till such Time he had studied Four Years in Divinity But here 's no mention either of an Inquisitor or of a particular Examen And as for Don Alphonso de Fonseca Arch-Bishop of Toledo he was so far from judging him not to have been Sufficiently instructed in Matters of Religion that he very much Exhorted him to continue his Functions of Piety towards his Neighbour So that here lie chain'd one to the Heels of the other Two Forgeries without Dispute as well as without Excuse Had you been forc'd to Translate your Author out of Greek Charity might have oblig'd me rather to have fast'ned this Mistake on your Ignorance than to have imputed it to your Malice But the Book being Englisht to your Hands the most favourable Construction I can put on your Crime is That you have taken up that Principle so often laid at the Papists Door viz. All things are lawful if profitable to the Church and then working by this Maxim you concluded That a Forgery was but a small Price to buy Heaven for your self and the Dis-esteem of the World for St. Ignatius and those of his Society But Sir You have taken false Measures and as disadvantagious a Topick as you could have light upon Vent your Burlesquing Vein till Dooms-Day you will never so far unman Rational Creatures as to wheedle them into a Belief that the Jesuits and their Founder are Fools and Ideots Had you taken up your Quarters at Fox-Hall and from that Enchanted Castle popt in the Hawker's Mouths New Narratives of Popish Plots and Jesuitical Contrivances or ply'd them with White-Horse Consultations Armies of Jesuits in the Air and Thousands of Pilgrims in the Rear your Labour might 't is possible have met with some Success But on a suddain to Metamorphize their Plotting into Folly their intrieguing Genius into Stupidity is to raise a Scruple in the Wisest Part of the Nation Whether they did not want some Grains of Wit when they fear'd to be impos'd on by Fools Yet indeed to give the Gentleman his Due he dropt a Word or two Pag. 26. which insinuate That at first he intended rather to have charg'd the Jesuits with Knavery than Folly for thus he tells us It seems the Propagation of the Gospel by Force of Arms is connatural to the Order of Jesuits only the Wisdom of latter Years hath chang'd these Spiritual into Carnal Weapons You are in the right Sir The Wisdom of latter Years hath chang'd these Spiritual into Carnal Weapons But the Misery is the Wisdom of the little Lord Shaftsbury joyn'd with the indefatigable Industry of Sir William Waller was not able to find them in Jesuitical nor Popish Cabinets The Gentlemen of Rye-House engross'd them to themselves for a peculiar Use and then the Protestant Duke of the Church of England convey'd them to his Friends at Taunton for the Propagation of Liberty and Religion But Sir You are too wary You might without Scruple extend the Wisdom of latter Years to latter Ages for I find Protestancy and Carnal Weapons of the same Date Look over to the Godly Churches of Germany and you will see them making Elbow-Room with Drawn Daggers in their Hands and Christian Liberty in their Mouths Two pretty Protestancy-dilating Engines and both the Product of Modern Wisdom What think you Sir of the Wisdom of a Neighbouring Republick Did it not effect the Propagation of the Gospel by Force of Arms Did it not break in pieces the fretting Yoak of its Master the King of Spain
it were not a greater Perfection to embarque himself unprovided But suppose his own Judgment told him It was unlawful yet his Confessor brought so weighty Reasons against what he objected that at last he concluded his Confessor was in the Right and Himself in the Wrong and so accordingly he follow'd his Advice Where is the Sin in all this Proceeding Where is the Renouncing the Liberty of his Will and Vse of his Reason Do Men fling up their Reason I beseech you Sir when they leave a weak Motive to stick to a stronger At this rate we must conclude That Fools run loose in the World and that all the Wise Men of the Nation are confin'd to Bedlam Indeed I am not so great an Admirer of Blind Obedience as to judge it a Virtue in all Circumstances Men may command Things contrary to the Law of GOD and in this Case the Commander and the Obeyer are equally guilty Such a Case may be instanc'd in the Transactions of the last Week Thousands of well-meaning Men thought nothing so reasonable as to Read his Majesty's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience in the Churches But then their Reverend Confessors were of another Opinion and so the poor Penitents yielded Blind Obedience to their Directors although Obedience to the best of Princes oblig'd them to a contrary Procedure Here was I grant a Renouncing of the Liberty of Free-Will and Vse of Reason to the purpose and therefore according to your Logick a Sin of the deepest dye both against GOD and the King. But prompt Obedience to a Faction passes in Protestant Casuists for Virtue Yet when a Popish Saint lays aside his private Judgment upon good and rational Motives to follow the Sentiment of his Confessor no less than a Capital Crime is presently clapt on his Shoulders The Gentleman's Gall is still boyling against the Pope and nothing can quench it I see but another Push for it against both the Pope and St. Ignatius for you must know he frets at the One for being a Saint and at the Other for Canonizing him But what cries he in a pleasant Humor if after all Ignatius should be found an Heretick Ay marry Sir This is a necking Blow He would ill deserve the Dignity of a Saint Questionless you are in the right And at the next Reformation of the Calendar might be perhaps expung'd out of it p. 112. You might expunge your Perhaps and assert it confidently Nay I question not but all Catholicks would thank you for your Service could you unmask such a Cheat for they are well-meaning Men and are as loth to be impos'd on as their Neighbours But because I know if a bare Assertion be sufficient nothing is so surprizing which you cannot prove ad evidentiam I beg a short Authentick Reason on Record It will relish well He Believ'd Scripture to be the only Rule of Faith Ibid. I deny it But go on He said That if the Articles of Faith had never been Recorded in the Scripture or as another Author expresseth it Although no Monuments or Testimonies of the Christian Religion had remain'd he should still have believ'd them c. Which manifestly supposeth him to have believ'd that the Knowledge of the Christian Religion must necessarily be receiv'd either from the Scripture or from Extraordinary Illumination and that there is no Medium which might serve the Ends of a Rule of Faith. What no Medium Look back to the 105th Page and there you will see your self of another Opinion for Do you not express your self in as intelligible Terms as possibly can be That he so much doted on Blind Obedience that if he adher'd to his own Principles he must have renounc'd Christianity and even Natural Religion if his Confessor had commanded him And That he propos'd this as a first Principle to all That true Christians ought to submit themselves to the Decision of the Church with the Simplicity of an Infant Methinks this is a Medium between Scripture alone and Extraordinary Illumination Had I been to have drawn up this Indictment of Heresie my utmost Care should have been to have stifled this But you never Look before you Leap and that makes you so often Fall. Your Invective against Blind Obedience jump'd handsomly into Pag. 105. and in Pag. 112. you sell connaturally into Heresie and so down they went though you knew they would never be kept from Clashing on the same Paper But let us wink at this trifling Mistake and grant what you affirm That St. Ignatius did say That if the Articles of Faith had never been Recorded in Scripture c. he would firmly have embrac'd them all Does it follow That he held Scripture alone or Illumination to be the Rules of Faith By no means He was of Opinion 't is true That an Extraordinary Rule might be an Extraordinary Illumination and that the Ordinary One is Scripture interpreted by the Church So that the Sense of his Words is this Although all Scripture and the Church its Interpreter had perished GOD had given him by an Extraordinary Illumination such a clear Knowledge of the Mysteries of our Religion that he would have believ'd them Here you see the Gentleman has not been sparing of Dirt but he grosly miss'd his Aim for I am throughly convinc'd a moderate Eye will easily discover that the greatest Part sticks closest to the Asperser Yet Passion will set his Pen afloat in spight of Fate Indeed he is come to an End of his Accusation and to say something runs in a Circle by making a Recapitulation If it be prov'd That in his Life-time he was esteem'd an Enthusiast an Impostor and an Heretick by many sober indifferent and learn'd Men of the Church of Rome it will be no small Confirmation of the Truth of whatsoever I have hitherto observ'd Yes if their Surmizes were sounded on Reason otherwise by no means For in this Case I am no greater a Friend to Infallibility than your Self I grant you Catholicks in their Estimates may be mistaken as well as Protestants and equally lie open to Prejudices At Alcala he was suspected by some of Sorcery Why The Gentleman begs your Pardon there he is not such a Fool as to tell the Reason No that would wipe off the Aspersion The Truth of the Business is St. Ignatius reclaim'd from his sinful Courses a Person of the first Rank and presently the Wise Populace concluded nothing but the Power of the Devil could draw such a noted Debauchee to GOD. A pretty Accusation you see and as well grounded as that against our Saviour In Belzebub Principe Daemoniorum ejicis Demonia You cast out Devils in Vertue of Beelzebub the Chief of the Devils By others of Heresie and put in the Inquisition for a Visionary 'T is true but How came he of After an Exact Enquiry into the Manners and Doctrine of Ignatius not finding any thing that might render him suspected and judging it not expedient to make him appear before
Miracles for What Miracle of CHRIST can be better attested than Her Majesty's being with Child Yet at the same time as if they had made a Vow never to act like Men they would scarce perswade themselves the Protestant-Duke was Dead Which gave occasion for these Two Verses In the Whigg's Creed Two Articles are read The Queen is not with Child nor Monmouth Dead Nay one Line from a Pulpit would have so far prevail'd on them as to have oblig'd many to take Horse to meet his Grace at Taunton Sixthly He desires the Reader p. 21. to believe that he has not imitated the Scavenger in stopping no where but at a Dunghil For I have says he quoted none but allow'd and approv'd Authors c. And as for what I have cited out of Protestant Books let them invalidate their Testimony if they can I will engage for the Truth of my Quotations and know of no Objections against any Author I have cited which are of any Force You are Sir either in some Ecstatick Transport or else endow'd with that great Virtue Ignorance beyond Expression which your Friend so highly commends in St. Ignatius Were not the Provincial Letters burnt by the publick Hang-man in France Did not La Pratique Morale run the same Fate in the Year 1669 And is not this as real and material an Objection against the Validity and Sufficiency of those Libels as Mr. Oats's yearly Pillory against the Authority of His and his Brethrens Narratives When you propose in your Second Part as you promise as convincing Reasons against Miracles as I have done against the Credit of these Two Authors I will come over to You. Again Your Arcana Societatis Jesu Instructiones Secretae are Chips of the same Block that is Pieces forg'd with Impudence and cited with a daring Confidence In a word They are of as great Credit and Reputation as Those who live by the Basket and receive Knight-hood from the Pillory Sir Had it been my Fortune to have been in London some Years ago I would not have stood in your Way I see by the Authority you give Varlets in Print how you esteem'd them in Westminster-Hall and Old-Baily Nay I fear that had the Balance stood equal you might have dropt in a single Oath to raise a Jesuite's Neck into an Halter Would Time permit me I could give as good an Account of some others of your Authorities as I have of These and by Consequence of your Book in which I find a Thousand more Impostures than I am sure can be found in Saint Ignatius's Life Is not this Proceeding the Effect of a Frenzy past the Vertue of Heblebore Shall the profess'd Enemies of our Religion and Order by the Omnipotent Power of a Defaming Faction be turn'd into Vnbyass'd Persons Substantial Witnesses c And shall their bare Words without any Shadow of Proof serve for Evidence against Us of all those Calumnies which took their Being from Malice and Prejudice and have no Reality but in the Imagination of Those whom confident Gown-Men malitiously impose on But when we recount any thing in Confirmation of our Church although back'd with irrefragable Witnesses presently it must be slighted as if all the Moral Honesty in the World was confin'd to the narrow Compass of this Island or as if the Church of England had engross'd all Truth to its self And now 't is high time to leave my Author and Reader too Only I must desire the Latter to turn to E. W. Printed at Antwerp in the Year 1676. and to the Second Letter by A. B. in the Year 1672. In the First you will find Dr. Stillingfleet's Exceptions against Miracles in the Second against St. Ignatius and the Jesuites fully Answer'd For I conceive the Answer to the Dean is a full Reply to my Author he having nothing material but an higher-flown Impudence which is not borrow'd from the Doctor And now Dear Author before we part I admonish you friendly to change your Method if you intend to advance your Church A Burlesque is only to convince Fools Wise Men are led by Reason of which you have been over-sparing in your Book So that if you intend to make any Progress increase This and diminish That And if you be over-confident that you have so much solid Reason as to convince any one of the Truth of your Religion and the Corruption of Ours be pleas'd to bring your Reason to the Test I promise you here on the Word of a Gentleman That I will Meet you Where and with Whom you please But it shall be upon this Condition That you promise to treat me more civilly than the Divines of St. Martins did some time ago a Priest who was call'd to a Sick Person I dare not venture to engage with Divines who have for Seconds a Populace for who knows but They may strengthen the Doctor 's Arguments with Blows and foul their Hands to bespatter Me as their Leaders have the Press to Asperse my Religion Bring then with You such a Company as hath heard of such a Thing as Civility and can distinguish solid Reason from loud Clamours concluding Syllogisms from patch'd-up Sophisms On these Conditions I pass my Word for my Appearance And that You may not miss of my Lodgings your Letter shall find Me at the Schools in the Savoy Where I am SIR YOURS William Darrel FINIS ERRATA PAge 1. Line 11. for Merirs read Merits p. 3. l. 16. for Tittle read Title p. 7. l. 32. for this read things p. 22. l. 8. for Lib. 2. read Lib. 1. p. 31. l. 25. for stumple read stumble p. 39. l. 10. for by A. B. read so A. B.
A VINDICATION OF Saint Ignatius Founder of the Society of JESUS FROM Phanaticism And of the JESUITES FROM THE Calumnies Laid to their Charge in a late Book Entitul'd The Enthusiasm of the Church of ROME By William Darrel Priest of the Society of JESVS LONDON Printed for Anthony Boudet over-against the May-Pole in the Strand Bookseller 1688. THE PREFACE THE Disease of Gospelling first broke out in Germany and from Thence the Contagion crept into other States of Europe Martin Luther was the First this new Plague seiz'd on and from Him his Pot-Companions took it He wrapt his foul Design under fair Appearances He aim'd at Abuses to strike at the Church and cry'd out Reformation of Manners to let-in Deformation His maskt Hypocrisie drew Shoals of Admirers and then the charming Promises of True Christian Liberty soon flung them into an Hellish Slavery for from Admirers of his Doctrine they past to be Proselytes and Canoniz'd his Gross Dreams for Divine Revelations But as yet his Progress was scarce discernable He found Priests and Religious as Vigilant to defend the Church as Himself to attack it And therefore he set Two Gins the One to allure Them the Other to fright Them and their Inferiours too from their Duty He felt by Experience that a Capuche and an Hair-Shift were troublesome Companions That Fasting aud Praying were Melancholy Entertainments and That to give a Breviary for a Fair Lady could be no Bad Exchange And therefore by his Omnipotent Power be dispenc'd with all Religious Vows and gave Mankind so vast a Liberty as to do any thing but those Obligations CHRIST had laid upon them Sense applauded this New Prophet's Gospel and German-Reason soon approv'd it So that many Priests and Religious accepted of the Dispensation and made a Divorce with the Church and CHRIST Himself to Espouse the World and its Fopperies But Those who refus'd these Proffers to accept of GOD's who plac'd the Good of their Souls above the Criminal Ease of their Bodies and valu'd Fidelity to their Maker at an higher Rate than a Criminal Obedience to his Mortal Enemy Those I say were oppugn'd with different Engines Every Reformer begat some Scandalous Pamphlet and so contributed to the Peopling of the World with the Children of his Brain as well as with the spurious Off-spring of his Body Some struck at Priests Others at Religious But all Conspir'd as if Associations were even then in Fashion to decipher the Leaders of the Church as Persons rather to be Detested than Obey'd By which Piece of unchristian Policy they intended to raise a Disesteem of Superiors in the Hearts of Inferiors which once affected Disobedience the constant Sequel of Contempt would follow And indeed this Method prov'd so favourable to the Sinistrous Designs of the first New Gospellers that their Successors have pitch'd on the same Expedient for the Preservation of that Religion which like a Young Minerva jumpt out of their Fore-Father's Brain Invectives against Priests and Jesuits are the common Cries in the Streets and the never-failing Topick of all Pulpit-Rhetorick But I confess the Latter bears the greatest part of the Satyrs A Jesuite and Behemoth are nigh a-kin for as this Beast was a Compound of all Animals so He is a Mixture of all Abominations Is there any Black Design contriv'd The Jesuite is of the Counsel Any Abominable Treason put in Execution He is the Actor The Parliament of 41. was a College of Jesuites Hugh Peters a Profess'd Father nay Fairfax Waller and Cromwel too had been adopted Children of the same Society but that They wanted the necessary qualifications Disloyalty Rapine Murders and the Tribe of Jesuitical Vertues In 66. the Jesuits laid London in Ashes Like fiery Dragons they spit Flames into Cellars and Oyl-Shops and probably then experienc'd first the Omnipotent Power of Teukesbury Mustard-Balls Nay I have it from Credible Hands their Malice went so far as to undermine the Thames and had infallibly blew it up in the Air but Providence put a Stop to their Hellish Enterprize and so blew up their Design From Fire and Water they run to the Sword and no Blood would lay the Devil of Revenge but His Sacred Majesty's Omnipotent Oliva sent down Commissions from Rome Father de la Chayse Ships of Money and in Conclusion They carry'd the Treason so secretly that They knew not of it Themselves Nor did any Body else but those Villains who accus'd them and who thought to build their Fortune on the Ruin of Church and State. In fine A Jesuite is by Trade a Butcher but with this Difference That He stabs Kings meerly to be doing and the honest Butcher Beasts only to gain a Livelyhood His Religion is to profess All or None as Time and Emergencies require From Mass he runs to the Quakers From These to the Presbyterians Then he is dubb'd Jew and sometimes Turk when-ever the Alcoran sutes better with his Occasions than the Gospel Thus Jesuits make sale of Things even the most Holy and Rever'd in Christianity acknowledging no other God but Interest no other Religion but Faction and the greatest of Crimes Treason But Gentlemen if all these Accusations are true Why is not the Evidence in proving them equal to the Boldness in Asserting them Why Our Adversaries make the World believe That we are gifted with Proteus's Faculty That we can turn and wind our selves into all Shapes and Figures That Gyges bequeath'd us his Mysterious Ring And What Wonder then if we play such Prancks without being catch'd when we cannot be seen But sober Reader Let us cast away Prejudice and argue a little like Men by the Rules of Reason and not of Passion First Were Jesuits such Mortal Enemies to Princes Is it credible that the Greatest Monarchs in Christendom would commit their Consciences to the Directions of Men whose only Aim is the Destruction of their Bodies and ruin of their Monarchies No certainly unless we can imagine they are all of the same Party with the Jesuits and conspire against Themselves as some Gentlemen assur'd the World that Charles the Second of bless'd Memory did against his own Royal Person Secondly Were their Principles of Morality so bad and Anti-christian as some Malevalent Persons have describ'd them Can any Man of an unbyass'd Judgment ever be perswaded that all the World would run Mad together and send their Children for Vertue Learning to their Schools where no Lessons are read but of Debauchery and Faction I will rather believe some Pamphleteers have been mistaken than that the greatest Part of Europe is deceived and that They deserve rather to be Pillor'd for Calumniators than the Jesuites to be Condemn'd for Criminals Some Ministers in Germany confess'd That in the Rules of our Society there was nothing reprehensible but the Roman Religion And for my part I am of Opinion That our English Ministers can find no other Fault with our Actions but that They tend more than they desire to the Increase of