of Discourses of Purity and Charity of Repentance and of seeking the Kingdom of God. Published by Dean Tillotson 8 o. His Second Volume of Discourses on several Practical Subjects 8 o. Sir Thomas Mores Vtopia newly made English by Dr. Burnet 8 o. Mr. Sellers Devout Communicant assisted with Rules Meditations Prayers and Anthems 12. Dr. Towerson of the Sacraments in General Of the Sacrament of Baptism in particular 8 o. The History of the COVNCIL OF TRENT in which besides the ordinary Acts of the Council are declared many notable occurrences which hapned in Christendom for 40 Years and particularly the Practices of the COVRT of ROME to hinder the Râ—formation of their Errors and to maintain Their Greatness Written by Father Paul of the Servi To which is added the Life of the Author and the History of the Inquisition Dr. Bâ—rnets History of the Reformation of the Church of Eng. in 2 Vol Fol. A Collection of sixteen several Tracts and Discourses written in the Years from 16â—8 to 1685. inclusive by Gilbert Barnet D. D. To which is added A Letter written to Dr Barnet giving an Account of Cardinal Pools secret Powers The History of the Powder Treason with a Vindication of the Proceedings thereupon An Impartial Consideration of the Five Jesuits dying Speeches who were Executed for the Popish Pâ—ot 1679. 4 o. A Dissertation concerning the Government of the Ancient Church more particularly of the Encroachments of the Bishops of Rome upon other Sees By WILLIAM CAVE D.D. 8 vo An Answer to Mr. Serjeant's Sure Footing in Christianity concerning the Rule of Fâ—ith With some other Discourses By WILLIAM FALKNER D. D. 4 o. A Vindication of the Ordinations of the Church of England in Anâ—wer to a Paper written by one of the Church of Rome to prove the Nullity of our Orders By GILBERT BVRNET D D. An Abridâ—ment of the History of the Reformation of the Church of England By GILB BVRNET D D. 8 vo The APOLOGY of the Church of England and an Epistle to one Signior Scipio a Venetian Gentleman concerning the Council of Trent Written both in Latin by the Right Reverend Father in God IOHN IEWEL Lord Bishop of Salisbury Made English by a Person of Quality To which is added The Life of the said Bishop Collected and written by the same Hand 8 vo The Life of WILLIAM BEDEL D. D. Bishop of Kilmore in Ireland Together with Certain Letters which passed betwixt him and Iames Waddesworth a late Pensioner of the Holy Inquisition of Sevil in Matters of Religion concerning the General Motives to the Roman Obedience 8 vo The Decree made at ROME the Second of March 1679. condemning some Opinions of the Iesiuts and other Casuists 4 o. A Discourse concerning the Necessity of Reformation with respect to the Errors and Corruptions of the Church of Rome 4 o. First and Second Parts A Discourse concerning the Celebration of Divine Service in an Unknown Tongue 9 o. A Papist no Misrepresented by Protestants Being a Reply to the Reflections upon the Answer to A Papist Misrepresented and Represented 4 o. An Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England in the several Articles proposed by the late BISHOP of CONDOM in his Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholick Church 4 o. Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England against the Exceptions of the Mons. de Meaux late Bishop of Condom and his Vindicator 4 o. A CATECHISM explaining the Doctrine and Practices of the Church of Rome With an Answer thereunto By a Protestant of the Church of England 8 vo A Papist Represented and not Misrepresented being an Answer to the First Fifth and Sixth Sheets of the Second Part of the Papist Misrepresented and not Represented and for a further Vindication of the CATECHISM truly Representing the Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome 4 o. The Lay-Christian's Obligation to read the Holy Scriptures 4 o. The Plain man's Reply to the Catholick Missionaries 24 o. An Answer to THREE PAPERS lately printed concerning the Authority of the Catholick Church in matters of Faith and the Reformation of the Church of England 4 o A Vindication of the Answer to the said THREE PAPERS 4 o. Mr Chillingworths Book called The Religion of Protestants a safe way to Salvâ—tion made more generally useful by omitting personal contests but inserting whatsoever concerns the common cause of Protestants or defends the Church of England with an exact Table of Contents and an Addition of some genuine Pieces of Mr. Chillingworths never before Printed viz. against the Infallibility of the Roman Church Transubstantiation Tradition c. And an Account of what moved the Author to turn Papist with his confutation of the said motives An Historical Treatise written by an Author of the Communion of the Church of Rome touching Transubstantiation Wherein is made appear That according to the Principles of that Church this Doctrine cannot be an Article of Faith 4 o. The Protestants Companion or an Impartial survey and comparison of the Protestant Religion as by Law established with the main Doctrines of Popery Wherein is shewn that Popery is contrary to Scripture Primitive Fathers and Councils and that proved from Holy Writ the Writings of the Ancient Fathers for several hundred Years and the Confession of the most Learned Papists themselves 4 o. The Pillar and Ground of Truth A Treatise shewing that the Roman Church falsly claims to be that Church and the Pillar of that Truth mentioned by S. Paul in his first Epistle to Timothy chap. 3. ver 15.4 o. The Peoples Right to read the Holy Scriptures Asserted 4 o. A short summary of the principal Controversies between the Church of Engl. and the Church of Rome being a Vindication of several Protestant Doctrines in Answer to a late Pamphlet intituled Protestancy destitute of Scripture proofs 4 o. An Answer to a late Pamphlet intituled The Judgment and Doctrine of the Clergy of the Church of England concerning one special Branch of the Kings Prerogative viz. In dispensing with the Penal Laws 4 o. A Discourse of the Holy Eucharist in the two great Points of the Real Presence and the Adoration of the Host in Answer to the Two Discourses lately Printed at Oxford on this Subject To which is prefixed a large Historical Preface relating to the same Argument Two Discourses Of Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead The Fifteen Notes of the Church as laid down by Cardinal Bellarmin examined and confuted 4 o. With a Table to the Whole Preparation for Death Being a Letter sent to a young Gentlewoman in France in a dangerous Distemper of which she died by W. Wake M. A 12 o. The Difference between the Church of England and the Church of Rome in opposition to a late Book Intituled An Agreement between the Church of England and Church of Rome A Private Prayer to be used in difficult Times A True Account of a Conference held about Religion at London Sept. 29. 1687. between
trifling Actions of their most illustrious Saints and fond Superstitions practiced in their several Monastick Orders Processions Worship of Images Saints and Relicks and indeed in every individual Office of the Church of Rome cannot but conclude without descending into the merits of the Cause That the complex Religion of the Church of Rome is not of Divine Institution and deserves not either to have been revealed by God or to be believed by Men and if he believeth these opinions and practices to be inseparable from Christianity he may justly reject it and rationally conclude it to be a Cheat and the Author of it to have been an Egregious Impostor That these Reasons have really tended to the Prejudice of Christianity and made innumerable Apostates from it the sad Experience of Italy and other Romish Countries beyond the Seas demonstrates where if the Relations of modern Travellers do not deceive us few real Christians can be found out of the credulous Multitude whose Ignorance disableth them from perceiving the Follies and discovering the Falseness of their Religion It is therefore the peculiar Glory of the Christian Religion that it was revealed and proposed to the World in the most Learned of all the precedent Ages That it did not take shelter in the Ignorance of Mankind nor confine its Mysteries to the more remote and ignorant Part of the World. The Learning and Philosophy of the Heathens was then raised to the highest Perfection and the Knowledg of all Arts and Sciences had gained equal extent with the Roman Empire so that we may truly affirm the World to have been then more universally Learned than in any Age either before or since At this time especially God chose to publish his Revelations to the World and made the more Learned part of it the Stage of his Promulgation that so in future Ages Christianity might not be subjected to any just Suspicions of Fraud and Imposture nor the precedent Reception of it be ascribed to the foolish Credulity of ignorant and illiterate Proselytes The Doctrines of it were proposed and Miracles in testimony of it wrought in all the more famous Cities of the Empire in their publick Schools and Synagogues in their Theaters and Universities in Rome and Athens the great Centers of Learning and which deserveth to be observed more especially in Greece and Asia Minor the most Learned part of that then Learned Empire This secured the Christian Religion from all possibility of Error and Illusion since if either the Doctrines of it had been ridiculous and irrational or the Miracles fictitious and pretended the Learned Auditors and Spectators of those times who were not in the least prepossest in favour of it would soon have discovered the Cheat and vehemently decried the Error This consideration also tendeth no less to the Advantage and Reputation of the Reformation that it was advanced and undertaken in a most learned and knowing Age That all the Authors and Promoters of it were Persons of extraordinary Knowledg and that purity of Religion and success of Learning as they decreased proportionably in all Ages so they returned into the World at the same time Whereas Popery oweth all its Triumphs and Success to the Ignorance of Mankind began with the decrease of Learning and was well nigh ruined with the Restauration of it All the peculiar Articles of Popery were founded in the dark and ignorant Ages of the Church their most illustrious and admired Saints were rude and illiterate Idiots devoid of all Learning and oft-times of common Sense their Miracles are ever acted either in barbarous and credulous Ages or in remote Corners of the World we poor Hereticks who have the greatest need of them for their Arguments being so often baffled nothing but Miracles can now convert us can never be blessed with the sight of them and at this day it flourisheth proportionably to the Knowledg or Ignorance of all Countries In France the most Learned of all the Popish Countries it is forced to put on a new Masque and by many subtil and nice Expositions Qualifications and Interpretations is almost lost and refined into nothing In Italy if we may believe the Reports of modern Travellers it hath few Proselytes besides the ignorant and unlearned Multitude the more intelligent sort being become either Atheists Scepticks or Molinists In Spain alone and the Indies doth it flourish in its full Vigour where so gross an Ignorance hath possessed the minds of Papists that they believe their Inquisitors no less Infallible than the Apostles and imagine that their Images can both hear and see them So necessary and useful is Learning to Mankind which may fix Rules to distinguish true from pretended Revelations discern real from feigned Miracles and discover the Illusions of Impostors that the decay of it hath in all Ages and Countries been accompanied with a deluge of Error and Superstition But in nothing is the use and necessity of Learning and its subservience to the interest and purity of Religion more conspicuous and apparent than in preventing the Dangers and Follies of Enthusiasm to which in the present Constitution of mankind all revealed Religions cannot but be obnoxious I do not hereby imply the necessity of any extraordinary Learning or accurate Knowledg of all Sciences in all Ranks and Orders of Christians but an ordinary Prudence and right understanding of the nature and genius of Christianity which if assisted by the Direction of more learned Guides and Pastors as God in the first Institution of Christianity intended it should be will abundantly secure all Persons from the delusions of designing or ignorant Enthusiasts However a great part of Mankind will continue to want this Prudence and neglect this Direction especially when the means of Knowledg are studiously kept from them and no Instruction to be obtained but from external Ceremonies or the Dictates of a Confessor as it is in all Popish Countries Such Persons profess Christianity not out of any Conviction of the Truth or Divinity of it but induced by the Prejudices of Education and Authority of Example understand not the true Principles of their Religion and instead of a rational Faith possess only a blind Credulity This affords a fair opportunity of success to the Frauds and Artifices of Impostors who will never want Proselytes in an ignorant and credulous Auditory and if upheld and favoured by the publick Applause of the Church may draw Multitudes of Admirers after them The great Engines of these Religious Juglers were ever Enthusiasm and the pretence of Miracles The latter have long since ceased and could never really be performed by Impostors It remains therefore that they betake themselves to Enthusiasm possess the People with a belief of extraordinary Revelations communicated to them of an inward Familiarity with God of continual Divine Inspirations of acting solely by the impulse of the Spirit and following the infallible Dictates of an inward Light. This Opinion must be raised and continued by bold
Grammar-School at Barcelona he made so small Proficience that in many Months he could not learn to Conjugate the Verb Amo and was forced to beg of his Master to whip him severely and treat him equally with the meanest Boy After two years Study at Barcelona he goes to Alcala where he learneth Logick Physick and Divinity And studieth Night and Day without Intermission but so many different Notions so confounded his Vnderstanding that all his Labour ended in learning nothing Next he removes to Salamanca leaves off begging and mitigates his Austerities that he might imploy his whole time in Learning Yet finding but small Progress he quits Spain for shame and betakes himself to the University of Paris wisely driving an Ass laden with Books before him For himself before he got to Paris had lost all his Learning insomuch as coming thither he was forced to begin all a new and return even to the first Elements of Grammar After he had studied there several years by the help of Friends and many Petitions he gets a Degree but still continues so Ignorant that after he had enticed Faber into his Society he was forced to desire him privately to explain Aristotle to him to whom he in requital explained the Secrets of a Spiritual Life and Mystical Divinity But perhaps all this is to be ascribed to a singular Providence which hindred his Progress in Learning as knowing it to be destructive to the very being of a Romish Saint That little smattering which he had of Learning did no small Prejudice to his Sanctity for after that his Visions Extasies and Illuminations became infinitely less frequent The very reading of a learned and rational Book lessened his Devotion and quenched his Spiritual Consolations For being advised once by some learned Men to read the Books of Erasmus he perceived that the reading of him diminished his Devotion and the more he read the less fervour he had in Prayer He thereupon threw them away and when General of his Order commanded that none of his Followers should read Erasmus's Writings or at least not without great Precaution Nothing but the reading of Thomas a Kempis or other unintelligible Enthusiasts could keep alive his first fervour which grew faint and expired at the least appearance of solid Learning If the Jesuits have since conceived a greater esteem for Learning and not unsuccessfully employed their Labour in the attainment of it they have perhaps deservedly obtained a Reputation to themselves but as I fear have thereby forfeited the Protection and Intercession of their Founder Ignatius who continues even after his Death to be the professed Enemy of Learning For ten years after his Death appearing to Iames Terry a young Scotchman of his Society who with diligence and fervour had applied himself to the Study of true Learning he sharply reprehended him recommending to him Less Knowledg and more Virtue Having thus manifested That Ignatius wanted no Qualities necessary to an Enthusiast I shall next enquire whether he were really guilty of Enthusiasm This consisteth in pretending to divine Visions and extraordinary Illuminations after Christianity is once fully setled and all Christians left to learn their Religion by natural and ordinary means from the Rule of Faith whether Scripture or Tradition in boasting of infused Knowledg and inward Lights in pretending to have received all the Articles of Faith by particular Inspiration to do all things by the private Impulse of the Spirit and act solely by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost in venting these pretended Revelations without any respect to the Rules of Ecclesiastical Discipline fixed by Christ much less of Decency in perpetual talking of Divine Matters in an unintelligible Jargon and impertinent Canting and boasting of a mighty Familiarity with God and Christ. To which if frequent Extasies and Raptures of mind be added the Enthusiast is become compleat and his Disease little less than Madness These Pretences are not only apt to raise the Admiration and excite the Veneration of the Vulgar who ever admire what they cannot Penetrate and having crude Notions of Religion and Piety are easily led away with Pretences of it but raise the Ambition and augment the Folly of the Enthusiast himself who thence formeth vast Ideas of his own Merits and Perfection is delighted with his own Illusion hates to be convicted and flatters himself with the thoughts of being the familiar Friend of God and Favourite of Heaven That Ignatius was guilty of all these Extravagances and Follies in the highest degree a particular Examination of his Actions will abundantly demonstrate First Therefore as to the pretence of Divine Visions and Illuminations his whole Life after his Conversion if we may believe the Writers of his Life was a continued Series of them His Conversion was at first produced by such imaginary Visions The Holy Virgin descended from Heaven and brought down with her the Child Jesus in her Arms one would wonder how our Saviour since his Ascension should dwindle into a Child to convert this maimed Soldier She appeared to him all invironed with Light while he was awake tho Bouhours implieth the contrary and continued with him some while At this Vision Ignatius felt his Soul replenished with such a spiritual Vnction as ever after rendred all Pleasures of the Senses insipid to him During this Apparition it seemed to him that his heart was purified within him and that all Images of sensual Delights were quite razed out of his mind Soon after he imagineth St. Peter to appear to him to touch him and cure his Wounds Being recovered he goeth to Manreze where he receiveth innumerable Visions and Illuminations but the most remarkable was an Extasy which lasted eight Days during all which time he had no use of his Senses Some thought him Dead and would have buried him But some motion of his Heart being at last perceived diverted that Resolution No Body ever knew the Secrets which were revealed to him in that long Rapture and all the account which he would give was that they were inexpressible Travelling thence through Italy in his way to the Holy Land and praying in the open Plain before the Gates of Venice Jesus Christ appeared to him gave him inward strength and promised him Protection in all his Journey Coming to Ierusalem he was seized with a religious horror and imagined that he saw Jesus Christ in every place born in the Manger at Bethlehem teaching in the Temple crucified in Mount Calvary and triumphing on Mount Olivet or as another Author expresseth it Iesus Christ appeared to him often and enriched him with a thousand Benedictions Travelling from Mount Olivet to the Convent Christ appeared to him in the Air and accompanied him along encouraging him with his presence Afterwards at Paris he saw clearly in a Vision that God had appointed to establish a Company of Apostolick men and found a new Order in the Church A year after journeying from
pretended desire of resigning the Generalty of his Order when he knew that it would not be permitted his flattery of Great Men whom he continually praised but winked at their faults and never blamed them altho their Actions and Behaviour were condemned and decried by the unanimous consent of all men Lastly to produce one Instance of a just suspicion of Imposture in performing Miracles I will represent it in the words of Vitelleschi At his last Voyage into Spain one night the Saint did a great Miracle The People flocking to his Chamber and staying with him late he desired them to withdraw and carry away the Candle with them saying God can enlighten the darkness of the night When they were gone Ignatius fell to praying loud The People after some while return and peeping through the Keyhole see a light in his Chamber He that will not suspect some artifice in this matter may safely believe all the Fables of the Alcoran If Ignatius wanted a light in his Chamber why did he order the People to carry away the Candle with them If he intended to perform a Miracle why did he not suffer the People to stay and be spectators of it But what if after all Ignatius should be found an Heretick He would ill deserve the dignity of a Saint and at the next reformation of the Calendar might be perhaps expunged out of it It seems St. Francis was somewhat inclined to Heresie and no thorough Catholick For his Epistle to the Priests of his Order is prohibited in the Index Romanus and he is known to have laid those Principles of Evangelical Poverty which afterwards founded the Heresies of the Fratricelli and Beguini or Beguardi This Opinion of the perfection and excellence of Evangelical Poverty was common both to Ignatius and St. Francis and was condemned as erroneous and heretical by Pope Iohn XXII But the charge of Heresie falls much more heavy upon Ignatius For he believed Scripture to be the only Rule of Faith a Doctrine which passeth among our Adversaries for a rank Heresie For magnifying the greatness and perspicuity of the Divine Illuminations and Revelations conferred on him and boasting that he received the knowledge of Christianity not from the ordinary Rule of Faith but by extraordinary Illumination he was wont to use these words That if the Articles of Faith had never been recorded in the Scriptures or as another Author expresseth it altho no Monuments or Testimonies of the Christian Religion had remained he should still have believed them and that even had the Scriptures been lost no part of his Faith had been diminished Which manifestly supposeth him to have believed that the knowledge of the Christian Religion must necessarily be received either from the Scripture or from extraordinary Illumination and that there was no medium which might serve the ends of a Rule of Faith. Besides all this Ignatius pretended that in Prayer his Soul acted passively not actively and did nothing but receive the influences of the Spirit and upon the authority of a personal Apparition believed that the Flesh of the Blessed Virgin was contained in the Eucharist in the Flesh of her Son there substantially present Now among the Articles of Molinos condemned last year in the Inquisition at Rome one is that in contemplation the Mind acts purely passively not actively and one of the pretended Opinions of Signior Burrhi condemned of Heresie by the Inquisition and which he was forced to recant in the Year 1668. was That the consecrated Host hath in it the Body of the Mother as well as of the Son. If Ignatius had lived at this time I do not see how he could have escaped being condemned for an Heretick by the Inquisition It will be no small confirmation of the truth of whatsoever I have hitherto observed or advanced concerning Ignatius if it be proved that in his life-time he was esteemed an Enthusiast an Impostor and a Heretick by many sober indifferent and learned Men of the Church of Rome if he was censured as such by the publick Tribunals of the Church and suspicions of this nature often entertained of him by whole multitudes of his Hearers Saint Francis at his first conversion was esteemed to be a Mad-man by his Father who therefore put him in Chains and shut him up in a dark Room to cure his Distemper His Townsmen of Assisium entertained the same opinion of him where the Rabble commonly persecuted him whensoever he appeared in publick with stones and dirt and followed him with loud outcries Civilities which both himself and his Disciples often received in other Cities of Italy when they first began to preach Ignatius fared no better His own Brother far from esteeming his Conversion a work of Heaven told him it was only the effect of a melancholy distemper which betrayed him to extravagant courses The People of Manreze where he vented the first heat of his Devotion in wonderful Austerities thought him a Fool and a Mad-man insomuch as whenever he appeared in the Town the Children pointed at him threw stones at him and followed him in the Streets with shouts and outcries Going into the Holy Land to preach the Gospel the Franciscans far from believing him to have received a Divine Mission charged him to depart on pain of Excommunication At Alcala he was suspected by some of Sorcery by others of Heresie and put into the Inquisition for a Visionary but at last acquitted on condition of deserting his extravagant methods of Religion Soon after he is clapt into the Inquisition a second time for instilling foolish Principles into his Hearers and when he removed to Salamanca both he and his Disciples were put in Chains by the Inquisition there as Hereticks and Seditious Persons and not absolved but upon condition of preaching no more Soon after his arrival at Paris he is accused to the Inquisitors for seducing Young Scholars but by the intercession of Friends dismissed After some time he is sentenced to be whipt publickly in the Hall by the Regents of his Colledge upon the same account and before his departure accused a second time of Heresie to the Inquisitors chiefly for his Book of Exercises which his Enemies called the Mysterious Book At Venice he was decried as an Heretick and a dangerous Impostor and by some accused to have a Familiar which informed him of all things At Rome both himself and his Companions were accused of Heresie by a famous Piemontese Priest and were esteemed by the People to be Hypocrites and false Prophets No body for a while dared to appear in the company of such miserable wretches whom they thought to be destined to the Stake When he first proposed the erection of his Order to the Pope the Cardinals generally disapproved and opposed it After it was approved it met with great opposition in France in his life-time Many decried it as monstrous and said that he who had