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
cannot perswade my self you are in earnest when you make us believe he judged Ignorance so Meritorious after all these Efforts to lose it Methinks you might have alleadg'd stronger Arguments to evince his high Esteem of this great Virtue rather than to represent him with Children in the School turning over his Accidents and sweating about the First Conjugation Anno. I suspect your continual hammering on the Notions of Crack'd disturb'd Brains c. has something misplac'd yours and that you have so long hector'd St. Ignatius out of his Wits till you have lost your Own. However you have receiv'd the Wound in the Church of England's Service and you may in Recompence hope for a Fellowship in Moor-field College But laying aside all your Demonstrations of his Stupidity the Vniversity of Sorbon assures us That he took his Degree Which makes me conclude what-ever you are pleas'd to the contrary he was not such an Enemy to Learning nor such a Friend to Ignorance as you describe him But 't is no matter You will have him after his Death to be the profess'd Enemy to Learning Back your Assertion with a good Reason and I 'll not oppose you Why Ten Years after his Death appearing to James Terry a Young Scotch Man of his Society who with Diligence and Fervour had apply'd himself to the Study of True Learning he sharply reprehended him recommending to him less Knowledge and more Virtue Here 's his Proof now attend to his Illation St. Ignatius recommended to him a greater Study of Virtue than of Knowledge Ergo He was the profess'd Enemy of Learning I wonder the Gentleman has spar'd so long to cast some by-reflection on our Saviour for I do not remember He ever exhorted his Disciples to the Study of Human Learning but every Page is full of Exhortations to Virtue Nay St. Paul seems rather to disswade Christians from too curious a Search into Litterature and he gives a Reason too Because it is the Mother of Pride Scientia instat And without Flattery I am of Opinion the Flatuous Vapours of an imaginary Learning now and then flie up to our Scribler's Brains and disturbs his Intellect For How can a Man in his Wits commit so foul a Crime as to write Bantering for Truth and down-right Impiety for solid Reason Yet this is his Case without an Hyperbole He has charg'd on St. Ignatius Two Essential Constitutives of an Enthusiast viz. Ambition and Ignorance with such an hectoring Accent that one would have expected as many Demonstrations as Prepositions But in the end you see the Gentleman forgot his Message and instead of pressing his Accusation has thus blindly flung it on CHRIST and his Apostles Come Sir let me exhort you as St. Ignatius did his Proselyte Less Knowledge more Virtue Study more how to serve GOD and less how to defame your Neighbour Now if you will be so cruel as for my Charity to enrol me among the Enemies of Learning I shall only say Amen So be it SECT II. Whether St. Ignatius was actually guilty of Phanaticism HAving kept Pace with my Gentleman Forty-Three Pages in which lie couch'd as many Impertinencies as Lines but all the Product of his Brain although my Patience be almost out of Breath I will venture to keep up with him I do not doubt but what Follows is of the same Piece with That which went Before and that the End will agree perfectly with the Beginning And if my Conjecture be true I shall recommend the whole Work as the most Ingenious Piece of Nonsense and Confidence which our Age hath produc'd Having manifested that the Two chief Parts of an Enthusiast fit St. Ignatius to an Hair he enquires Whether he really were not guilty of Enthusiasm p. 44. To make this Inquiry methodically he gives us this Definition of Enthusiasm viz. This consists in pretending to Divine Visions and extrordinary Illuminations after Christianity is fully settled 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 infus'd Knowledge and inward Lights In pretending to have receiv'd all the Articles of Faith by particular Inspiration to do all things by the private Impulse of the Spirit I must interrupt the Gentleman's Definition with an c. for I have lost almost my Breath and shall I fear quite if I proceed I take it for a Definition fresh jumpt out of Mr. Hobbs's Mint and indeed the whole Book is so full of Atheistical Dashes that I am perswaded the Author has serv'd his Apprentiship under that great Master of Atheism I must take the Whole into Pieces for I confess I dare not encounter with such a Crowd of Nonsense together Enthusiasm says he consists in pretending to Divine Visions and extraordinary Illuminations after Christianity is fully settled Hold there Dear Sir as you tender your Credit and the Honour of the English Protestancy If you give so large Notions of Phanaticism you exclude from the Pale of your Church the most Famous Saints and Doctors of Christianity and if once these Supports be thrown away your Church must fall Saint Martin was a Pretender to Extraordinary Illuminations and Saint Austin tells us of a certain Voice which bid him Tolle Lege Take up and Read and a Thousand others Now Sir If I put my Hand to this Part of your Definition I cannot refuse it handsomly to this Consequence Ergo St. Martin St. Austin c. were Enthusiasts My Reason is Because you assert That all those who pretend to Divine Visions and extraordinary Illuminations after Christianity is fully settled are Enthusiasts But All those fore-mention'd Saints did pretend to Divine Visions c. after Christian Religion was once fully settled Ergo Those Saints were Phanaticks Excuse me then from Subscribing to the First of your Definitions unless you think good to explain your Mind better I will take up the Context In beasting of infus'd Knowledge and inward Light. I admit this on condition you do not intend to make an humble Recount of those Favors meerly for others Instruction pass current for boasting My Precaution is necessary lest unwarily we find St. Paul's Name in the Catalogue of Phanaticks before we dream of it What follows next is full of Equivocation And therefore I must declare on what terms I admit it and on what I reject it In pretending to have receiv'd all the Articles of Faith by particular Inspiration This Proposition as it lies is not Orthodox For after the compleat Settlement of the Jewish Church the Prophets did pretend to have receiv'd the Articles of their Faith by particular Inspiration and yet I dare not pronounce them Phanaticks Now indeed if you stoop so low as to regulate your Charge by my Notion of Phanaticism we will proceed to the Trial. I conceive it then with Submission that only those deserve the Title of Phanaticks who pretend That the natural and ordinary Means instituted by Divine
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
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
it incurable This excited in him a passionate Desire of obtaining an equal Reputation in the Church p. 22. If the Lecture of Romances inflamed his Ambition whilst he was yet a Soldier and breath'd the Air of the World we accuse the Lecture as well as the Effect of it But then too I cannot but wonder that such an Accusation should fall from your Mouth who are without doubt guilty of the same Folly for if his Passion carry'd him to Amadis yours tie you to Don Quixot otherwise you could never have follow'd so close your Parallel But that the Life of Christ and Actions of the Saints should work the same Effect I understand not unless he had your Faculty to draw Bad from Good and Vice from the greatest Vertues I will grant you willingly that the Zeal of St. Dominick and Humility of St. Francis first open'd his Eyes and gave him a Prospect of the Folly of all Worldly Pretensions as well as of the Happiness of Those who leave all this for his sake who made them Where is the Crime Where 's Ambition but in your Fancy who spy Faults in others where there are none and will not turn an Eye homeward where I am sure you would find a Subject more than ordinary of Confusion and Detestation Does not St. Austin in his Confessions recount the Conversion of Two Noble Romans by an accidental Reading of St. Anthony's Life And does he load these Converts with the Accusation of Ambition No no This Trade is new and takes its Date from the Blessed Epoche of Reformation 'T was then Christ's Counsels began to be laugh'd at when his very Commands were declar'd Noxious to Christian Liberty When Purity of Faith sounded the Trumpet of Rebellion and any thing pass'd for Lawful but Obedience to the Church When Coblers left their Stalls to mount the Pulpits and pass'd from the mending of Soals to the Direction of Consciences When Religion grew in Vogue like Almanacks and the Freshness of its Date was a sufficient Argument to recommend it I say 'T was Then Men establish'd a New Language when they pickt up a New Faith and first term'd Humility Pride Voluntary Poverty Nakedness c. the most palpable Sequels of an Enthusiastick Ambition Yet this Gentleman having once bolted this wild Proposition Ignatius in his Conversion was acted with Principles of Ambition is resolv'd to stand to it though his Conscience flies in his Face for it Nay and to demonstrate that his Face is dy'd as deep with Brass as his Pen is dipt in Gaul he tells us 'T is so undeniable that even the Writers of his Life cannot dissemble it This appears from the Account given by them of the Motions excited in his Imaginations by reading Romances and the Lives of Saints at his first Conversion which was before mention'd and may be further demonstrated from what Bouhours adds That in exercising all his Religious Austerities he had at first no other Aim than to imitate those Holy Penitents whose Lives he had read and to expiate his Sins p. 30. Sir The Meaning is That at the beginning of his Conversion he had no Thoughts of Instituting an Order for the saving his Neighbour's Soul but his Design was wholly confin'd to the Salvation of his own So that in short here 's your Argument St. Ignatius at first employ'd all his Endeavours by reading of the Saints Lives and asking God Pardon for his Sins to save his own Soul without extending his Care to the Salvation of his Neighbour's therefore his Conversion flow'd from the Principle of Ambition Is not This a most concluding Enthymema Does not the Author deserve to Commence Master of Arts for this cunning Illation Without doubt And I hope the Vniversity will be pleas'd to take it into its serious Consideration whither such an ingenious Philosopher is not worthy of some Promotion But because he wisely foresaw the last Clause And to expiate his Sins would break the Neck of the Argument he thought fit to prevent it by a pretty Slight of Hand usual to Persons of his Quality This last Clause says he was annex'd only to save the Credit of the Saint And let me tell you Sir 'T is only rejected by you to save the Credit of a Pamphleteer But the Gentleman has Two Strings to his Bow. If Bouhour's Recount of his Conversion will not brand St. Ignatius with Ambition the Publisher of his Life by Mutius Vitelleschius's Order shall Pray observe His First Resolutions were to exercise great Austerities and perform extraordinary Penance No harm yet not one Grain of Ambition is hitherto visible Not so much to expiate his Sins which then presented themselves to his View as because he imagin'd that in these Rigours the utmost Perfection of Christianity consisted having no higher Idea of it and desiring with Passion to acquire that Perfection Now let any Man turn this Quotation into all Shapes let him make what Combination he pleaseth he will never frame I am sure an Argument able to convince any Person of St. Ignatius's Ambition For the natural Sense which the Words import is That the Saint aim'd at the highest Perfection of Christianity and plac'd it in the Exercise of great Austerities which without doubt was a Mistake For the Perfection of Christianity consists in a most perfect Love of our Creator other exterior Austerities are only Means to arrive to it Say then the Saint was mistaken in his Idea of Perfection and I will put my Hand to your Accusation But on my Word Sir if you lay Ambition at his Door without better Proofs than you have already produc'd you must maintain your Charge alone Well then rather than fall short of his Intent he singles out another Circumstance very material viz. The Ambition of Founding a new Order in the Cburch had strangely possess'd his Imagination and was the grand Motive of all his Austerities p. 32. That from his Conversion he had conceiv'd such a Design Orlandin and Bouhours agree and I subscribe But that Ambition put this Resolution on foot and as Mr. Bays very well says And all that Where 's your Proof Why I Gad he will not tell us And yet we must swear such a blind Obedience to his Worship as to believe him without any further Inquiry For my part I do not intend to give him a Deference he denies to the Church nor to accuse the Saint by freeing him from Calumny St. Ignatius fram'd a Design to Institute a new Order Ergo Ambition was the Mover of this Great Work. I cannot infer such an Impious Consequence from so Pious an Antecedent nor any Body else without betraying at once a want of Wit and an abundance of Impiety I find that St. Basil and St. Austin had the same Design nay and put it in Execution and yet I dare not for my Life draw this Conclusion Ergo They were Ambitious Will you therefore know St. Ignatius's Motive It was a Zeal for his Redeemer's Honour and
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
to put on its Neck that of the LORD Yes And Dr. B. a Minister of the Church of England extols to the Skies the Wisdom of his New Lords for a Crime which I fear has pusht the Contrivers into Hell. The Wisdom of latter Years has produc'd the same Effects in every Kingdom where Protestancy the Religion of Latter Times got foot and I dare say That it seldom gain'd one Inch of Ground but by the Help of Carnal Weapons So that I am sure what-ever Mines the Jesuits have laid to propagate Popery the Propagation of the Gospel by Force of Arms is more connatural to Protestancy After an Hundred and Two Pages spent in wild Notions rambling Propositions and nonsensical Probations to back them as if he had intended all the while to give Scope only to a Whimsical Imagination or to teach the World That much Confidence and little Reason go far he resolves to knock down St. Ignatius's Sanctity as well as the Church's at one Blow The Design is great and suitable to Don Quixot's Bravo and the Method contriv'd to Admiration Be pleas'd therefore to attend In the Bull of his Canonization the Pope affirmeth That from the Time of his Conversion nothing proceeded from him which can be accounted a Mortal Sin. But St. Ignatius committed the Sin of Despair in the most aggravating Circumstances sometime after his Conversion Ergo The Pope was deceiv'd and St. Ignatius instead of a Throne among the Saints deserves a Place among the Sinners Here are Two Charges but GOD send they fall not on the Head of the Accuser I deny then Sir the Minor viz. That St. Ignatius was guilty of Despair But let me desire you not to run to Bouhours to make your Charge good for on my Word you will betray your Blindness as well as the Cause you have in Hand The Gentleman after so many unlucky Chances by Quotations will try another Hit for it He tells us then out of Bouhours That he Ignatius falls into a dark Melancholly and being one Day in his Cell he had the thought of throwing himself out of the Window to end his Misery Here is indeed a shrewd Temptation but yet no shadow of Sin. All the World knows well that it is not in the Power of any Man breathing to barr out of his Imagination Criminal Suggestions No no they lie within the reach of Satan who can imprint in them the Pictures of the most monstrous Crimes and oftentimes the best Men are assaulted with the worst Thoughts A bare Suggestion is no Fault 't is a voluntary embracing of it derives all its Malice into the Action Shew me then out of Bouhours that St. Ignatius deliberately yielded to the Temptation and I will cast aside all further Dispute But Heaven says he by Force restrain'd him against his Will. Ay here is Despair with a Vengeance indeed Does Bouhours affirm this Not one word of it upon my Credit Pray Reader condescend so far to Curiosity as to turn to Lib. 2. pag. 29. and you will find Boubours of a quite contrary Opinion But he was with-held from yielding to this Motion of Despair by the same Hand which struck him Thus he Which Words taken in the most natural Sense imaginable import only this That St. Ignatius was assail'd with the Temptation of Despair but by the Helping Grace of GOD he most happily triumphed over the Enemy And now Reader Shall such an Impudence go unpunish'd No no if a Searing Iron has not past over his Conscience if ev'ry Spark of Christianity is not stifled I am sure he has felt the Bitings of a knawing Conscience and GOD send the Torment already began Here may not continue Hereafter where it is like to he without Redress because without End. I will appeal to any sober Man Whether this Gentleman hath not drawn up an undeniable Demonstration both of his own Forgery and Despair I say Despair and that in the most aggravating Circumstances because nothing beside the utmost Despair of making his Indictment good could ever throw a Man into such an Extremity as to oblige him to run bare-fac'd into a Guilt of the highest Nature to fasten a Crime on another Yet the Gentleman may in some sort be excus'd 't is the Epidemical Disease of the Climate His Church sprung from the Itch of Liberty was first wean'd with Forgery and stands yet on the same Crutches And this is so black a Patch in the Face of the Church of England that the Guardians not being able to wash it off have thought fit to perswade the World that the Papists are guilty of the same Defect But the Misery is the Blur is so minute in us that none can see it but the Ministerial Guides so that Others who believe it must pin their Faith on the Reverend Sleeves of their Divines Canonical Habit. The Gentleman is now piping-hot against the Pope The former Crime of Despair was mention'd to convince the World that his Holiness took ill Informations of St. Ignatius's Sanctity Ex abundanti he comes out with a Second However if it be a Venial Sin for a Man to sacrifice his Life to his Folly it is no less than a Mortal One deliberately to commit an Action which he is perswaded in his own Conscience to be unlawful Ignatius in his Voyage to Jerusalem thought it utterly unlawful and contrary to Evangelical Poverty to carry any Provisions with him yet being resolv'd by his Confessor to the contrary he boldly did that out of Obedience which he durst not do of himself By this Passage he pretends to demonstrate St. Ignatius guilty of a Mortal Sin but after having sifted it from top to bottom I protest I cannot find the very Shaddow of a Venial One. Let us put to the Test each Proposition It is no less than a Mortal Sin deliberately to commit an Action which he is perswaded in his own Conscience to be unlawful Certainly Sir your Closet turn'd round when you Penn'd this Proposition I suppose you are perswaded in your Conscience the least Untruth to be unlawful and yet I should not be so severe as to judge every slight Untruth to amount to a Mortal Sin To steal a Penny is an unlawful Action and yet I dare avouch that whosoever taxes such a petty Theft with a Mortal Sin stands accountable to GOD of a Mortal One himself And when it shall please you to call for my Reason you shall not fail to have it Let us go on Ignatius in his Voyage to Jerusalem thought it utterly unlawful and contrary to Evangelical Poverty to carry any Provisions with him Sir You are so innur'd to false Quotations that you cannot forbear 'T is utterly false that St. Ignatius thought it utterly unlawful to carry any Provisions along with him For Bouhours only tells us He was afraid he should deviate from Evangelical Poverty in carrying any thing along with him So that his Doubt was not of the Lawfulness of the Action but whether