the Doctors Countenance quite differing from his heart For the Presses guarded enough before against Catholicks was presently within a month after his Book came forth so stoutly beset so frequently invaded so violently searched night and day especially by the industry of one of them who entring into the Printing-houses cried out aloud And what have ye here any thing against the Doctor Stilling fleet hah that what before was difficil and extreamly dangerous was now become impossible So that I believe no Catholick in England can do him the favour which the Doctor thirsts after so earnestly in his Lips He challenged the Papâ—sts for his Credit and stopt up their way for his Security He would first make the world believe they cannot answer him and then provides that they shall not This seems to be his mind And yet I think Sir there be few Protestant Gentlemen in England who desire not as earnestly as any Catholick to see some Reply to his Book So little do they think themselves concerned in a Scroll which neither defends their Religion nor hurts or touches ours wherein nothing is said but what might as well be spoken by a Mahomet an Jew or Pagan and the most part of that which is put to disable Catholick Religion diminishes Christianity it self Some of them offered themselves to print a Reply for us But they offered but words For they found that the Bishop durst not give a License to any of our Catholick Books onely so far as to secure the Printer from danger although the Doctor be a Foe to their Rank and Order and Catholick Religion a Friend This is truly Sir a very sad case that they can freely give one a License to defame men and yet dare not give others a License to clear themselves Doctor Cousins when he was in Paris spake up and down so freely against Catholick Religion that their Clergy hearing of it came to him and told him plainly That if he had ought to say against their Religion they would both get him a License from the Bishop to print his Book and themselves pay the whole charges and then answer him when they had done for his satisfaction But we poor Creatures can obtain no favour in our own Countrey no leave to speak or justifie our selves no License to print a Book for our defence when we are both scurrilously libelled and falsely slandered and imperiously challenged to answer Nor is there any open field for our poor Men to come forth into that I know of but Tybourn and that is perhaps the Doctor 's meaning It does mightily amaze our Catholicks all over the Land to have their Ears thus beaten with slanders which are both of a high nature and still notoriously false year by year without any end thereby to make us odious to our Neighbours and them to God Our blessed Lord have pity on us and either open if it may be thy will our Magistrates hearts towards us or stop the Ministers mouths against us that our good Name and Peace may return unto thy great Glory We are if we be siâ—ent proclaimed guilty and if we speak insolent What can we do Sir here but still commend our selves unto our heavenly Lord who miraculously preserves us We do either subsist after this life or not Our Protestant Countrey men must needs believe one of these two things Either some Religion is true or it is all a fiction If it be all aâ—fiction and there is no life to come then are they as guilty as we nay something more for they have taken away our Churches from us for themselves to dissemble in If there be a life to come and this everlasting then can there certainly be nothing of greater importance in this world than to know when many ways are pretended to it which of them is the most authentick and truest wherein we may be both happy and safe for ever Why then are we who are the first not permitted to speak while all others are permitted to blaspheme us If we prove to go amiss the danger is our own and if we be in the right it cannot be any danger unto them to know it All the positive things of Religion which any of them do keep they have them all from us we borrow nothing from them And the negative points which separate them from us seem to us as false and impious as they can possibly appear true to them They have as many Articles to believe as we only some of them which made the separation are affirmative to us and negative to them And one Affirmers word is to be taken in Judgment before ten Deniers And yet will they neither read our Books nor suffer us to print any when we are falsified and mis-interpreted and challenged and obliged to do it for fear I think our Religion should prove true All rejoyce when a Book is written against Popery but no man seeks to be informed They will have it by all means to be esteemed false be it in it self what it will or can be And in that strange prejudice men venture to die onely for the pleasure of a Minister and his Wife and Children who must needs have it so The occasion of this his present book intitled A Discourse concerning the Idolatry c. was it seems a question or two propounded unto Mr. Stilling fleet by I know not what Gentlewoman who having heard the Doctor say That Protestants if they turned Roman Catholicks would lose their Salvation told him That if Protestants say so then are they full as uncharitable as Papists themselves who aver the like of Protestants She therefore consults some Catholick Gentleman in the business I do not know whom neither But he it seems put into her hand two questions to show to Doctor Still in her next encounter First was Whether the same motives which secured one born and bred in the Catholick Church to continue in it might not also serve to secure a Protestant who convinced by those motives should embrace it The second was Whether it suffice to be a Christian in genere or it be also necessary to adjoyn to some Church of Christians in particular These be the two questions The second of these two questions the Doctor reâ—â—lves affiâ—matively I affirm saith he that a Christian by vertue of his being â—oâ— is â—ound to joyn â—e the Communion of some Church or Congregation in particular Thus he resolves it and speaks not a word more of that business Yet here we may take notice that the said Resolution of his is quite contrary both to a book of his called Irenicon written in the times of our late Anarchy and also to his first work written more lately against Popery For all the whole scope of both these books is to show that a Christian by vertue of his being so is not bound to joyn in the Communion of any one Church in particular or any Organical Body as he calls it And that because every such
under earth expresly by the same Law forbidden for example Moon and Stars Dogs and Cats Whales and Dolphins The Picture of Martin Luther in their Chamber is the lawful effigies of a man But Saint Stephen in our Closet is a Calf Can any man who talks at this rate be thought to be one that has conversed either with the learned sort of Papists or the wiser sort of Heathens or one rather that had never any conversation at all either with reason or men O but Catholicks worship God by their Images which Protestants do not I marry this is a huge fault indeed that Catholicks take thereby occasion to think of God and his manifold mercies and bless his name and trust in him For they no other way worship God by Images This is the mortal sin which Catholicks commit And if that illogical speech of the Doctor Catholicks worship God by Images be drawn into any kind of sence it can be no other than this that Catholicks take occasion by the pious faces of their Martyrs to think of Gods manifold graces and mercies towards them and thereupon trust in him afresh and bless his name which great errour the Doctor it seems does carefully avoid The ancient devout Christians thought of God and worshipped him by any thing any good thing they enjoyed the verdant fields and sweet flowers comfortable air and pleasing light mountains valleys and liquid streams Plumbs Pears Apples and chearful Grapes by the vertue charity and devotion of men the ministry of Angels c. But now we must take heed of that We may taste a Plumb or a Cherry we may eat a Venison Pasty and drink good Wine if we can get it nay we may have fine Pictures in our Chambers even the Picture of Jesus Christ crucified or any of his followers we may have all this if we be such good Protestants as Mr. Stillingfleet and never think of God or worship God by it But if we worship God by it if we think of God by it then it is all poison to us All is suddenly turned to Moloch to Remphan to Bâ—al Peor to Ashtaroth to Aarons golden Steer and the Calves of Bethel If we do but eat a custard thinking of God or worshipping God by it presently it becomes a Ramphan or Chiun the Idol of the Arabians Walking upon Hamstead hill as people use innocently enough to do if casting our eyes about the prospect we think of God by it as Catholicks are wont the hill before innocent is now become a Baal Peor the Idol of the Moabites A Citizâ—n walking to the Tower may look harmlesly enough upon the Crown and royal Robes there But he must take heed then that he fall not into a meditation of Heaven or the glory of its great King to worship him in his heart by it For then it becomes to him an Adramelech the idol of Sepharvaâ—m And he must beware of the like abuse when he sees the Chamber and Table where his Majesty sits in Council with his Peers lest it become a Moloch to him the idol of the Moabites The very Flags and Banners often seen in London-streets make some simple soul to think of Jerusalem above the peace and happy company there and the God of all but then O how suddenly is the Streamer metamorphosed and tâ—rned into Nesroch the idol of Senacherib Some are so bold when they either see or hear of any corrupted by the French-pox and lecâ—eâ—y to thank God who has preserved them and worship God by it And thereby sin no less grievously than Maacham the Mother of Asa King of Judah in worshipping her idol Priap or Nimphleseth A Gentleman called upon God not in words onely but very heaâ—tâ—ly when a troublesome Fly got into his Eve and much afflâ—cted him but he little thought that by that piety of his he had sinned as deeply as they that worship Baalzebub the idol of Acaron Nothing is more ordinary with Country Gentlemen when walking abroad they behold a goodly fair Flock of Sheep in pasture of their own than to thank God and worship God by it but little do they think good men they are guilty of idolatry thereby as much guilty as they that worshipped Ashtaroth the idol of the Philistins Nay a very Cow or Calf in the Meadows if we take occasion by it to thank God for his benefits or to worship God by it is the same thing then as Aarons Moulten heifer or Jeroboams Calves set up in Dan and Bethel And as it is for substance so for the figures of things St. Paul's picture so long as we do not think of God by it is a lawful picture But if we come once to think of God to worship God by it O then that is a Calf too Aarons Calf one of Jeroboams Calves c. This thinking of God this worshipping of God by any thing this is the pestilential blast that spoils all It turns sweet into bitter lawful into unlawful things innocent into sin and good things to death The representation of our blessed Lord crucified for us so long as we think not of him may pass for a good innocent or at least indifferent thing but if we once think seriously of him if we worship God by it then O Mr. Stillingfleet what is it then And yet answer me not For I will not have those blasphemous words here repeated Speak them to a Jew in order to Jesus Christ and he will embrace and love you But a Christian cannot enduâ—e to hear them § 5. Papists saith he worship God by images and so are guilty of idolatry Catholicks may hear this but can never understand what he means They are never taught in any of their Catechisms to worship God by Images None of their spiritual books wherein all religious Duties are importunately urged and pressed upon them ever mention it and their practice does not infer it For if it did they would easiliest understand it who best know what themselves do They are taught and do in their practice endeavour to worship God in their heart and soul and ardent affections streaming forth thence towards him They worship him with bended knees lips voice hearts and eyes lifted up unto him They worship him with the assistance of Gods good Spirit the Priests Sacrifice and help of mutual Prayers They worship him by mortifying their sensuality and carnal appetites by giving alms and relieving the poor and needy for his Love by observing his Laws and Counsels by resigning to his good will and pleaâ—ure in all things especially in time of afflicting persecutions when they suffer all manner of reproach lies and calumnies loss of goods and sometimes life it sell for his name sake patiently They worship him in Closets in Church-assemblies in the fields as they are walking on Land or Sea where they have oppportunity to do it Thus doth their religion teach them to worship God as with the right causes and instruments as by the true effects and
Gospel wherein he lived himself and bred up all his followers inviolably I think Dr. Still notwithstanding his own definition which he does not himself heed calls all those fanaticks who do not as he does or do practise that which he cannot or have had those gifts from God which he has not Otherwise how should living in a cave subduing lust by nettles a power over devils the spirit of discerning at a distance knowledg of Gods divine mysteries and the like seem to him any properties of a fanatick All this if it be true makes for St. Bennets glory and no part of it to his disparagement His retirement into rocks and caves his mortification of lust and all the rest are good and glorious And he hath no less a man than St. Paul the great Apostle a companion with him also in his dislike of human learning who both vilifies it and gives us as great a caution against it as ever St. Bennet did the same blessed Apostle as dusty and dirty in his travels and careless of his outward man as ever St Bennet could be however taken as Dr. Still here tells us by countrey people for a beast But let the beast be where it will God sees not as man sees And what is comely in our eyes is an abomination to that holy one who regards the heart Saint Bennet is content with his own company of Apostles and Prophets who did the same things with him and had the like gifts and heeds little any derision of Stillingfleets long finger § 10. Petrus Damianus reports of St. Romwal that he was hard to learn in his youth that he took ugly birds to be devils and chaced them away that he was converted by a vision of St. Apollinaris that he had devils lying upon his legs and sometimes bruising him in his prayers that he wept bitterly when he said Mass saw Monks going up to Heaven on a Ladder of light And that St. Bruno and Hugo built the grand Chartreus upon a vision This is all he can pick out against St. Romwall and St. Bruno to prove them fanaticks that is to say mad men for I cannot tell what else he should mean Nor can any one perceive by his phrase of speech whether he relates these few things of them or those of St. Bennet as things he believes to be true or which he thinks to be false If false then Peter Damian Writer of their Lives is the fanatick and not St. Bruno or Romwall If true then Dr. Still is the fanatick and not Peter Damian For what blame is it in any either to be hard to learn in youth or to see devils if he did see them or to be converted by a vision or to weep at Mass or the like where lyes the fanaticism of this business Here is no news of any new religion invented or any resisting Authority under pretence thereof He that walks all his whole life in the ways of Christian piety may have such things as these happen to him partly in his youth and partly in his maturer age None of these things are unusual or impossible where Christianity odious to evil Angels is practised and professed in earnest The Religion of these men is the same one Catholick Faith that is common to all though all do not keep so strict rules to observe it as they did nor are all block heads or hard to learn in their youth nor have all men devils lying upon their legs or bruising them in their prayers nor do all weep at Mass or see Ladders of light or the like And whether these oppressions and apparitions in any one Catholick young or old be true or false imaginary or real this cannot make his religion either better or worse however the man may be otherwise affected then others of the same religion who are free If Dr. Still could but see the daily lives of the Camaldulensian Monks or Carthusians from their first Founders time in profound silence austerity and prayers he would find there is some other thing there to do then to scare Crows § 11. St. Francis St. Dominick were the persons whom Pope Innocent the third saw in a vision to support the Lateran Church hence therefore called the two Lamps c. Surely these two men will prove no fanaticks but grave solid Orthodox Christians For fanaticks pull down Churches but support none And yet our Doctour will not have it so They must by all means be fanaticks too nay the chiefest of fanatick and enthusiastick men For Cardinal Vitriaco saith he calls St. Francis an illiterate man and St. Bonaventure describes him no otherwise His first conversion to that strict course of life was by visions wherein he was swallowed up in God as St. Bonaventure will have it and his soul melted at the sight of the Crucifix So tender hearted was he to the poor that sometimes be rent off his cloaths to give them and sometimes unript and divided them amongst them in all this having no teacher but Christ whose voice when he heard from a Crucifix he was besides himself so that people flockt about him as a mad man and cast dirt at him and his own father renounced him before the Bishop upon which St. Francis rejoyced now that he could better say Our Father which art in Heaven In this height of fanaticisme he made crucifixes in mortar and preaching to the people pierced their hearts Then opening the Gospel thrice he took the first three Sentences for the rule of his Order He had many extasies and raptures and in one of them had a full assurance of his sins remitted His rule confirmed afterwards by the Pope he called the book of life and marrow of Gospel St. Dominick comes not much behind him For he had a vision also that God had chose him and St. Francis to reform the world and the evil manners of men This is what he can cull out of St. Francis and St. Dominicks life to prove them both fanaticks and enthusiastick men And he interlards his narration with much jesting girds of his own to make it have the more fanatick rellish but all in vain For though he omit here in a manner all the whole life of those holy and blessed men as he did before in others and picks out thence onely such few passages as he thought he could lash as he went with the Scorpions of his bold derision yet will not this serve his turn For all that is here reported of St. Francis the scurrillous manner of his relation excepted is onely his voluntary poverty his neglect of humane learning and worldly wealth his divine visions and entertainments with God his charity to the poor his efficacious preaching unto the reformation of evil manners his rule of life drawn out of Gospel and confirmed by the chief Christian Prelate All which things are so far from fanaticism that they are quite opposite to it Here is no news of any new invented enthusiastick way of
the way we may note that Charlemaign or Charles the great was a notable champion not for the faith only but for the temporals also of the Roman Bishop even to his death which I gave the Doctour notice of when I spoke of the Councel of Frankford and himself now here acknowledges it 2. The story of the quarrels between Henry fourth Emperour and Pope Gregory Hildebrand about an age afterward and the various troubles inferred upon the said Emperour therby 3. The story of P. Vrban and Paschall and others then sitting in the See apostolick and Emperour Rodulphus Lotharius Conradus and the great wars and feuds between them unto the great affliction and misery of mankind 4. The story of the Schismes that happened in the ninth age about the election of Popes wherein successively they deposed contradicted judged and censured one another unto the unexpressable scandall and grief of the whole world And all these above named histories are gathered out of Alphonsus Ciaconus Baronius Luitprandus Morinus Papirius Massonus Onuphrius Sigonius Nauclerus Sigebertus Otto Frisingensis Conradus Rubeus Valesius Sirmondus Sabellicus Blondus Nithardus Hincmar Guicciardin Platina all Catholick historians not one that I know excepted 5. The story of Friars and Monks exemption from Episcopal jurisdiction and the troubles caused thereby amongst the Clergy and the instability of Roman Prelates sometimes confirming and then again recalling those their priviledges This happened in the thirteenth age about four hundred years ago some Doctours defending the said Religious exemptions and priviledges as St. Bonaventure St. Thomas Jacobus Abbas Cluniacensis and some opposing them as Dr. Saint Amour and the University of Paris Armacanus Durandus Mimatensis Petrus de Vineis and Aegidius Romanus 6. The story of two or three Priests here in England about threescore years ago who haveing boarded together at Wisbich with some of the Society very peaceably for a time at last fell out and parted with much scandal and heats one against another 7. The story of Richard Smith Bishop of Calcedon opposed here in England about forty years ago by some religions 8. The story of a bitter contest between some regulars and their bishop in the Philippin Islands and again in Angelopolis in America about twenty years ago 9. The story of the many differences amongst the Schoolmen not to be ended either by Pope or Councels although one of the contradictories must needs be false These are his stories some of them dismal enough and yet all of them I think as true as I am certain they are impertinent And ever and anon the Doctour cries out where is their unity here where is now their infallibility so much talked of whereas indeed the stability of religion and Gods infallible protection of his Church never appeared in greater splendour then it did in those dismal dark times when such as should have been Pastors proved wild beasts rather and wolves to destroy the flock For even in those worst times did the Catholick Church most flourish in unity and Christian piety all over the world And through all these tempests and many more yet greater hath this ship of the Church passed on now almost seventeen hundred years and yet continues To keep it safe and whole not only from outward opposition of Infidels but even from the many inward domestick scandals strong enough to crack asunder the very sides of it and dissipate it into dust is a power and vertue truly divine which can proceed from nothing but Gods great favour and love and blessing upon it We had never heard so much of the power of our Lord Jesus nor known it so well if a tempest had not rose and indangered the ship And all that I think can be judiciously gathered from these many dismal stories and miserable scandals is only this that in all such distresses and ever we are still to trust in God and in the vertue of our Lord Jesus Christ who has promised to be with us even to the worlds consummation And if he be with us we shall be well be what will against us whether it rise within the Church or fall upon it from without The Catholick Church must tast all the trials and temptations which may render her conformable to her Lord and head both from friends and foes And it is enough that he watches over us who never sleeps and suffers no more to befall us then will redound to his own glory in the end But I wonder much how the Doctour amongst the many differences and broils here recorded could omit to relate the differences betwixt the Kings of France and Spain now daily sounding in our ears unto the sad and woful ruin of so many thousand people But he is subtle and thinks perhaps if he should speak of such publick things now in present action that every one would be able to tell him presently that the said discourse is nothing to the purpose for that the said Kings and their whole Kingdoms are all in a perfect unity of their Catholick faith for all that And therefore he judges it a wiser part to hunt farther from home as foxes do where ordinary Readers cannot so easily discern his impertinency If he do speak any thing near our own times it must be the wranglings of some obscure men unknown to us if he relate the differences of greater men they must be such as are far removed off four five nine hundred years ago and then he hopes that his Reader may not so easily discover his fraud For the same reason he omits also to speak of the great wars and differences between the hous of York and Lancaster here in England which brought with them as dismal effects as any here recorded by him as also the Wars of England with France unto the utter depopulation in a manner of that whole Kingdom And yet did their unity of faith stand all the while inyiolable And this truth becaus it is known to every Reader therefore will not the subtle Doctor make any mention of these things But I cannot so well tell why he should omit the story of the Arrian heresy which disturbed not one Kingdom only but all the whole Christian world Europe Asia and Africa so far as the very Sun in the Firmament looked upon it And those differences were indeed about a point of faith which nothing is here in all the differences related by the Doctor Secondly they brought with them unspeakable molestations and damages all the world over far further then these his related differences ever reached Thirdly they lasted four hundred Years whereas most of these his differences were little and light and personal or national and none of them so lasting as the troubles of Arrianism So peevish obstinate and self-will'd are men even against all rules of Christian piety and moderation when concupiscence and passion are once ingaged And yet was that Arrian dispute so quaint and subtile that the world hardly discerns where the difference lay which so much incensed all the Catholick Prelates in the world and set in such a deadly fewd so many great and holy men on both sides who had guided their Flocks before in all tranquillity and peace But what reason soever the Doctour had for his omission of this Arrian heresy which is more pertinent than any of all his stories put together yet might he not me-thinks have utterly forgot the famous and renowned story of Robin Hood who was a noble person and well beloved of his Countrey and yet out-lawed by his King who professed the same Catholick religion with him was forced to confine himself to woods and deserts in much hunger and distress and daily dangers of his life If he had bethought himself well he might have printed here the whole History of England and France Spain and Italy Germany Poland and Greece And it would have made him a fine long chapter Especially if he had inserted all the wranglings and law-suits that have happened amongst Christians in all the said Kingdoms from their first conversion for above a thousand years unto this last age when Protestancy first showed its head But in all that time there is not an Authour upon earth who mentions any wars any wranglings any division of Protestants For neither Cesar nor Pompey however mischievous made any troubles before they were born nor did any writer take notice of those turbulent warriours from the time of Picus first King of the Latines unto their daies which was little less than the same space of time that Protestants were in a deep silence and peace all over the whole Christian world fifteen hundred years I have no more now to say but dear Sir farewell and continue still to love and pray for Your friendly Postillator J. V. C. FINIS
ΤΩ ΚΑΘΟΛΙΚΩ STILLINGFLEETON OR An account given to a Catholick Friend of Dr. Stillingfleets late book against the Roman Church Together with a short Postil upon his Text In three Letters By I. V. C. All things are not which seem to be Nor do all things seem to be which are Bruges Printed by Luke Kerchove 1672. ΤΩ ΚΑΘΟΛΙΚΩ THE PREFACE SIR MAny learned Treatises have been composed and set forth by the Reverend J. V. C. the worthy Author of FIAT LUX for perswading a right Vnderstanding and Moderation in matters of Religion and for the convincing this our distracted Nation of the Innocency of our Catholick Religion and Practices in order to Church and State which have been received with much benefit and applause But that good esteem wherwith You and Others entertained the First Part of his TO KATHOLIKO did especially engage Him to endeavour the publishing the remaining Pieces therof then fitted for your view in obedience to your command as well as to undeceive Dr. Stilâ—â—'s seduced Readers both concerning his Errours and our Vnblamableness as also to discover the grand Imposture contrived by his Malice or Folly for the subversion of his Catholick Neighbours The whole Work had long since been made publick had it not as the cause it justifies suffred much Persecution almost to its utter suppression The malignity of our Adversaeries conscious of the weakness of the Doctor 's charge against Vs and fearing least the perversness of their hearts in imposing and divulging so evident calumnies should become Visible has constrained this your harmless Postill to a longer Voyage then the timely Vindication of our Churches impeached Honour would have otherwise reasonably allowed Having now escaped many storms it walks alone and ventures to look forth upon you yet had its worthy Author been longer spared with Vs you would have seen it in a fuller and more fashionable dress though even thus it is not beneath your Expectations offring unto your Consideration such sober Reflections as well become the dignity of the Holy and Apostolical Religion of Catholicks and do clearly Vindicate that our Way from the foulest aspersions carnal wisdom could utter against plain Truth and Honesty Were that freedom which the Doctor 's provocations imply allowed Vs for a legal defence of our holy Church which the Law of Nations and our Venerable Courts of Justice afford the most wretched assayled Innocents in Case of fraud and Calumny against the Prevaricators of common peace It would be easy to manifest that as our Catholick Doctrin and Devotions need no other Champion then that Churches perfection and Majesty So her many Doctors neither want skill or will to put by those weak thrusts the Doctor makes at her reputation hitherto preserved without blemish by God's assured providence over her watchful Pastours The Doctor in this his Account of the Idolatry Impiety Fanaticism Divisions and what not of Iniquity of the Roman Church hath summ'd up high Criminations against Vs and then having laid the Foundations of his own Belief concludes the Church of Rome neither to be the Catholick Church nor any sound part or member thereof but whether he designed this his so peremptory a Charge as an Obelisk with GRATITUDO POSUIT to his thereby deluded Benefactours or to be a new Dioclesian Columne with NOMINE CHRISTIANO DELETO for this Age too he knows best who framed it sure it is his fundamentals are such that they subvert all Christian Monarchy and Obedience without which not only Christianity but neither any Church consisting of more then one member can long preserve its self from mouldring into Divisions and Desolation The truth is if ever any Opposer of our Catholick Faith has betray'd his own Cause this Doctor is notably guilty of it for his Imputations upon Vs are so evidently slanderous and the Principles of his own Religion so leakie that they have rendred the whole Reformation suspected of a Notorious Cheat in its growth and progress to all unprejudiced Judgments who by the sober ways of our Religious Worship our many great encouragements to piety our zeal in obseâ—ving Evangelical Counsels and our wonderful Vnity in the groundsills of our Christianity are clearly convinced of the holiness of our Catholick Truths and Maxims of Morality and notwithstanding our Adversaries loud declaimings against Vs even from the Infancy of Christian Religion to this Age when the Reformation was Vshered in by unclean licentiousness much different from the subtil Errours of Primitive Dissenters that neither Wit nor Malice of Man can overthrow the Faith and Moral Precepts of the Roman Church conveyed unto Vs in her sacred Canons whereas her Impugners still like Jonas Gourd wither in their blossom for the counsels of Men shall fail according to the good Gamaliels Rule but God and Truth have their Date everlasting Had the Doctor as carefully perused the large Records of our Church Histories which treasure up and continue to Vs the Body of our Christian Belief and Rules of manners unchanged through all its Ages by the Vigilancy of her Apostolical Governors by whom Primitive Truths have been unanimously conserved and conveyed unto Vs in their Original Purity as he has been in Rakeing over the foul ashes of ambitious Schismaticks Scepticks and Libertines the Cockle that still grows up with Christ's best corn and in frameing his Creed by the Square of his Truth discerning Reason that which Holy Scripture forbids to our utter peril he had discovered our Catholick Doctrin to be the very Image of her Divine Architype who IS and changes not and who has accordingly laid the Foundation of and built up this our Impregnable City of the Pilgrim Saints still guarding It with his own sacred Spirit and assisting her Visible Pastours in the Government of that his Catholick Body that as he hath promised Hell may not prevail against it Nor may the Doctor 's severe Account hope other success herein than the more powerful Swords of Pagan Cesars the Edicts of Senats and the wrath of Flamins of the Old Heathen Rome upon whose Ruins our glorious Lord hath by S. Peter built up this his everlasting Church in Communion wherewith only we can pretend to the Title of Christianity or to the promises which Jesus Christ has thereunto annexed if either Christ's promise or guift to or prayers for S. Peter may be allowed to have either power with God or any credit with Mankind Hence Sir the Doctor 's Book as it has bred admiration at his confidence and contempt of his Malice amongst all Catholicks who are better acquainted with their own Faith and practices then to be instructed in them or misled from them by any prevaricatours sounding brass or tinkling Cymbal so hath it raised up an amazement in some of the more learned Clergy of Protestants at that his boldness and caused them to suspect too their own cause which after so oft plaistring over their breach from Vs with manifold Vntruths at length needs buttressing up
operations as in the times and places seasonable for worship and devotion But how they should worship God by images or as he speaketh oftner in the context of his discourse in images this they do not easily understand When he lays any thing to Catholicks charge he ought to speak I should think as Catholicks do and then he will be understood by them It is not to be conceived how any one can worship God by images and in images but either for the real presence there or ideal imitation or some sort of occasion of worshâ—p arising thence And so God must be worshipped by them and in them either presentially ideally or occasionally And it cannot be presentially For so God is no otherwise present in a picture than in the wall it hangs upon nor yet ideally for the picture for example of St. Mary Magdalen or St. Paul is no idea of that invisible and glorious Godhead nor yet is any other as the Crucifix for example or Christ our Lord in his Birth or Resurrection for all these figures are representations of his humanity and no idea's of his Deity at all And Mr. Stillingfleet must needs mean one of these two ways For otherwise he could not charge them with idolatry for it And therefore I say that his charge is false and slanderous But if he mean that they worship God by images in their images occasionally which is a moral interpretation and the only true one Then is such a work so far from Idolatry that it is a sublime piety For what can they better do then to give God thanks for so great graces mercies helps and comforts bestowed in Jesus our Lord upon his Apostles Martyrs Confessors and Virgins when they look upon their Figures and Pictures either in their contemplations or patience of Martyrdome or conversion of the world subduing and bringing flesh Satan and the World under their seet especially if Catholicks conceive thereby some pious resolution as well they may of doing something the more and patiently suffering for God in imitation of those pious Heroes our Predecessours in Religion and yet naturally but flesh and blood as we our selves are I say all this is signal piety and our Christian duty And according to this morall meaning Catholicks if they do worship God by their Images and in their Images do well and like good Christians But the Doctor will not charge them I suppose with a matter of so much truth and great piety as this is although his words cannot make out any other sence that is true but only this morall one And the more logical sence of worshipping God by images and in images ideally or presentially is false Let him even take whâ—ch sence he pleases either what justifies Catholicks or what falsifies his own assertion It is all one to me whether we stand or he fall § 6. He adds That the worship of God by Images does not terminate upon God because God has forbid it and so gives Gods honor to the Creature This is strange gibberish An act that tends to nothing is no act If it be some act it tends and has already tended to something and it terminates upon that thing unto which it tends and whose act it is denominated This is clear enough even to a young sophomore or one who indeed never yet came into the Air of Philosophy if he do but understand the terms and words here used For example I cannot see a man in the street except my vision terminate upon him nor can my vision terminate upon him but I must see him And it is all one whether I see him close by me or by my Window or in a Looking-glass at home For I cannot see him any way but my sight must terminate upon him and if it do not I see him not And this course of nature is not hindred nor yet altered at all because that Person may haply have forbidden me to look upon him either this way or that For our acts or actions are accomplished within our selves independently of any acceptance or disacceptance of them Acceptance or dâ—sacceptance commanding or forbidding is another thing extrinsecal and quite differing from the substance of the act or action For they specifie onely either the motive or event which may make the act either good or evil either grateful or displeasing but not make it an act or no act or not to tend where it has tended And so must my act of worshipping God by images terminate upon God or else it is no act of worshipping God by them however God may have either commanded or forbid it God has forbidden blasphemy and yet the act terminates upon him otherwise it could not be a sin against him And if Gods worship by Images do not terminate on God whither on Gods name does it tend and how is God worshiped by them This he does not tell us here unless he insinuate it in those following words oâ— his but gives the honour due to God unto the Creature But how can that be If God should have forbid us by his law to see a star through a tube should we not therefore see it but the tube only or should not our sight then be terminated upon the Star So it seems by this Doctors philosophy who hath conversed with the learneder sort of Papists and the wiser sort of heathens but very little with himself Holy Fathers and Doctors have often said that the honour of an Image redounds to the Prototype but never thought or said that the honour of the Prototype redounds to the Image as it is here affirmed against both art and experience But let us hear him proceed in his discourse He will surely let fall some sence or truth ere long § 7. Gods infinite and incomprehensible Deity saith he cannot be represented O here it is This is very true What a comfortable thing it is to meet with a draught of truth sometimes when a man is dry and thirsts after it But to what purpose is this spoken here Catholicks have no representations of that invisible Deity nor none they look after Figures they have of our Lord Christ born as man amongst us and made flesh and crucified and ascending into Heaven Figures also of his holy Followers and Martyrs but representations of the invisible Deify they never yet saw nor heard nor thought of On then The wisest of Heathens judged any such representations of the Divine nature incongruous and unbecoming his glory Indeed they were wise heathens and their judgment very right and good Nor did I ever hear of any Christian wise or unwise any otherwise minded O how would this Doctor prevail if this wise Discourse of his were as pertinent as it is true But he trusts and hopes well that his good fate will so accompany his Reader that he shall not doubt at all that every word that is true in his book is also to some purpose And to some purpose indeed it is namely to
that may be contrary to their own soul and our rule and the brothers who are subjects must remember that for God they have denied their own wills and therefore do I strongly command them that they do obey their Ministers in all things which they have promised our Lord to observe and are not contrary to their own soul and our rule And where ever our brothers be who shall perceive and know that they are not able to observe the rule punctually unto their Ministers ought they and may they have recourse and the Ministers must charitably and chearfully receive them and show so great familiarity towards them that they may speak to them and act as Maisters to their servants for so it ought to be that ministers be the servants of all the brothers And now I admonish and exhort in our Lord Jesus Christ that our brothers beware of all pride vain glory envy covetousness care and solicitude of this world of detraction also and murmuring And let not the illiterate care to learn letters but let them heed what they ought to desire above all things to have the spirit of our Lord and his holy operation in them to pray always unto God with a pure heart and to have humility and patience in persecutions and sickness and to love those who persecute us for our Lord saith Love your enemies pray for such as persecute and slander you blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven and he who persevers to the end shall be safe Ch. 11. I do strongly command all our brothers that they keep no suspicious company or talk with women and that they enter not into the Monasteries of Nuns excepting onely such unto whom a special licence is allowed by the See Apostolick nor that they be Godfathers to men or women least by this occasion any scandal arise either of the brothers or amongst them Ch. 12. What brother soever by Gods inspiration shall have a will to go amongst the Sarazens and other infidels let him demand licence of his Minister Provincial And let not the Ministers give licence to any but such as they shall see fit to be sent Moreover I do enjoyn the Ministers by obedience that they ask of my Lord our Pape a Cardinal of the Roman Church who may be governour protectour and correctour of the Brotherhood that always subject to the feet of the same holy Roman Church we may stable in Catholick faith observe poverty humility and the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ which we have firmly promised This is the rule of St. Francis and his gray Fryars wherein are apparently all the perfect lineaments of a good sound Catholick Christian but of fanaticisme nothing at all Nor can I possibly tell why he should ascribe fanaticisme to persons wholly Evangelical resigned humble meek spiritual men unless perhaps because some one vision or other is written to have happened to one or other of them in their life And this may seem strange and incredible indeed to carnal men who do never really and heartily converse with God but to others who are as much spiritual as they are carnal it is no such great a novelty witness our holy Apostles and Prophets who had them frequently I cannot tell whether our English fanaticks such I mean as are called so do ever pretend any of these visions if they do they are not fanaticks because of their visions but because they are pretended only and false and Dr. Still does neither say nor go about to prove that these visions were false or so much as that they were frequent and familiar in their life And if one or other such peculiar visite from God either by vision or revelation may conclude a man to be fanatical farewel all religion both Hebrew and Christian for the sounders and teachers of both were familiarly absort in God which Dr. Still derides here in St. Francis and visited by him in apparitions revelations and visions continually § 12. Let me Sir in this paragraf acquaint you that when I first at your request undertook this work not much pleasing to my hand which uses a pen with much dâ—fficulty my mâ—nd and thoughts were in a manner wholly then taken up with this one Chapter of the Doctors book wherein I intended to be most copious not thinking to meet with such a multitude of impertinences and falsehoods as have now stopped me at every turn I must therefore be shorter then I intended and do like Whittingtons cat which set down in a house swarming with mice and rats could do no more then crush the heads now of one and then of another all day long for want of leisure to eat up any Some things I thought to say of these religious founders and some of the orders founded by them Concerning the founders I meant first to set down the miraculous lives of these Saints their profound humility patience continence and poverty their contempt of this vain transitory world consisting notwithstanding with a most cordial affection respect and love which they bore to all mankind their continual converse with the God of spirits their strange joy in contumelies and other injuries which is a perfection very few can arrive unto in this life their carnest aspirations after the fight of Jesus and his Heavenly Kingdom with their glorious triumphâ—ng death Of all which we have as clear and certain tradition as if they had lived but yesterday And Dr. Still hath been picking as it seems amongst those fragrant relicks not with any spirit of a Christian either to love or imitate them but to fill up like an adder the venom of his own breast and then to disgorge himself into a book 2. I had it then in my heart to discover at large the various growth of Saints neither uniformly answerable to one another nor yet to themselves in the several ages of their life and yet all of them friends of God and acceptable to him in the course and consummation of their lives Nor is to be expected that men incompassed with the like infirmities we be our selves should in all the parts either of their whole life or any one year or month therein be still alike either devout or joyous or indisturbed What is born of flesh is flesh inclining to sensual things and unwilling to be restrained subject to cold hunger and several infirmities and therefore averst from kneeling fasting contemplation especially if it be long and frequent and still leaning towards its own delight and satisfaction On the other side what is born of spirit is spirit still flying upwards towards the God of spirits in whom is most permanent and solid blisse And these two must be allowed sometimes in us to struggle and get the mastery at least to come to such equitable conditions that the ballance may hang straight No man is suddenly made naught neither is holiness the work of a day there appears in Corn first a
spirit from them So may we contrariwise think of this worthy society of Jesuits that such a stable gravity and fixed wisdom as is in them all must needs be derived unto them from the spirit and statutes of their founder That is I think a true moral physiognomy which is given us by the Lyrick poet especially in a continual succession of men Fortes creantur fortibus bonis Est in juvencis est in equis patrum Virtus nec imbelles ferocem Progenerant aquilam columbae But let St. Ignace be never so simple yet did he ever submit unto his Superiours and Pastours walking all his daies in Catholick religion and had his rule of life confirmed by his Prelate and therfore could be no fanatick according to the Doctours definition of it He neither invented any new way of religion nor yet resisted authority under pretence of it But I think the doctour gave us that definition of fanaticisme in the begining of this his Chapter only to keep his discourse far enough off and never to touch it § 16. The Doctour proceeds now to declare how the very Catholick way of devotion doth promote enthusiasme And what think you Sir doth he speak of here not one word of our daily psalms hymns canticles anthems sacred lessons doxologies our Lords prayer or any other devotion prescribed by the Church and almost hourly in the hands and eyes of Catholick people not a word of our examination of our selves upon our knees penitential petitions or other our obsecrations thanksgivings deprecations or interpellations for our selves and all other good Christian people for Kings and prelates and all constituted in authority over us that we may live a peaceable and quiet life with all piety and decent behaviour No mention of all this which he knows as I perceive by his talking of our Manuels and Breviaries to be our Catholick devotion no not one word What is it then he calls the Catholick way of devotion Only one spiritual book set forth by Mr. Cressy about twenty Years ago out of Father Baxers works wherin the Doctour finds some uncouth hard words which he cannot understand this is that which he calls Catholick devotion and this is all the way he shows that Catholick devotion promotes enthusiasme Have not I reason Sir to be weary in following after such a butterfly § 17. He tells us at last That Papists are guilty of resisting authority under pretence of religion which he proves first by the principles of the Jesuitical party which are destructive to government and Secondly by this that the said party are most countenanced in the Court of Rome But he never tells us what are these principles of the Jesuitical party nor what this Jesuitical party is He only names Mariana and one or two others who should say that a Prince excommunicated loses his Soveraignty For which boldness they suffered worthily both by their own body and others Now how this discourse of our Doctour agrees with his purpose all this while pretended here I cannot see For it has not so much as the colour which appeared in some sort hitherto His book is intitled A Discourse of the idolatrous fanaticisme of the Church of Rome but now he tells us of a Jesuitical party and the Court of Rome The Society of Jesuits a religious grave prudent family in the Catholick Church of God this I have heard of and the Church of Rome or Catholick Church I know But what is this Jesuitical party and what this Court of Rome I understand not at all The Doctour pretended to speak of the Church and her religion though indeed he hath never come neer it yet But now he speaks that which hath not so much as the sound of it A Jesuitical party and a Court what are these to our purpose now in hand There be parties and as many designs signs as there be men in this world although they should be all of one religion and not all of them nay not perhaps one in a thousand directed according to Gospel or right reason at all times but for avarice rather solicitude of this world or sensuality Who can mend this Or whose part is it to justify such things No man that defends a religion can conceive how they may concern him and he that opposes a religion if he were wise or honest would never object them And as for the Court of Rome I know no more of it then I do of the Court of France Spain or Constantinople I have long since been told that the designs of Courts and Courtiers are politick high ambitious and close And I have heard again that they are of one and the same opinion all over the face of the earth a high elevated secret mysterious way unknown to us peasants who are born in sin although it go under the name still of that rurall religion which is countenanced in their respective Kingdoms How true these things be and what this way of theirs is I know not nor do I love to speak of them at all One part of our duty I think and respect towards our Superiours is silence and not to speak at all of them For we may conclude that God subjected all other Creatures unâ—o man becaus he created them dumb And certainly enough may we imagine that the opinions of Courts and Courtiers are very high since one can hardly meet any ordinary man who would not have the whole earth under his command and power if he could get it It is not long since we had here threescore thousand of our own Protestant Countrymen armed in the field who held all of them an opinion that the Kings Crown was at their disposal So they wrote so they talked and so they acted And it is hard to say in what head are the most presumptuous ambitious and lofty opinions And our Doctour himself who so contemptuously treats King Pepin Charlemaign and other renowned Kings of the earth nay all the Catholicks in the world at once cannot be one of the humblest and modestest of men Court of Rome and Jesuitical party sounds in my ears like a thorough Bass and treble Violyn playing together the one strikeing three long humming Notes about the double Gamut the other descanting theron in short and quicker graces The Court of Rome I something perceive methinks what it should be but not what it is But the Jesuitical party with all its graces I neither know what it is nor what it should be That worthy Society of Jesuits may be considered either according to their religion or Schools or personal designs According to their religion they are as other Catholicks be in the same worship same Sacraments same Altar same Priesthood same faith same hope to come As to their Schools although they have I believe five hundred Readers of the Chair and perhaps as many publick defensions in every three years space yet did I never hear of any such thing either taught or defended in their Schools which
is here put upon the Jesuitical party And yet it is nothing to our purpose if it were But as to the personal designs of them or any others we can no more dive into them then into the several wandering thoughts and purposes of men museing daily in London-streets about their affairs And one man or other thus museing amiss amongst the Jesuits can no more be called the Jesuitical party then such a one here in England be termed the English party Mariana I am sure has been soundly checkt amongst them and other Catholicks for his fault here spoken of And if the Court or Courtiers of Rome have any fancy that they are higher than Kings and by their excommunication can render them Kings no more as this Doctour here speaks this may argue indeed that they are a high minded people But Courtiers do not walk so exactly according to our Christian religion that this can prove that vanity of theirs to be any part of it Catholick Kings who have been here in England well nigh twenty since the Conquest more among the Saxons and others not a few amongst our antient Brittains and the present Catholick Kings of France Spain the Emperour German Princes and others have and do all know well enough that such a fancy is no part of our Catholick religion Nor did our King Henry the Eighth who first left it off express any such cause or reason for it The times would be very good and happy if all the words and actions of every particular man were answerable to his holy faith But this is not to be expected in this evil world And to call that religion which is done or spoken contrary unto it is a very great injury and injustice Our holy religion teaches us to observe and obey our Kings and Superiours as Gods Vicegerents upon earth though they be Infidels and Pagans and rather to lay down our lives for them then suffer them to be hurt And this is nothing but the very law of Nature antecedent to any religion whatsoever and holds good although there were neither heaven nor hell nor any reward or punishment to come And what power can any man upon earth have to take that away which he never gave nor ever had He that creates can only annihilate So long as kings are Catholicks the Pope prays for them And if they cease to be so he is nothing to them any more And yet are they the same they were in all their royalty and power uncontroulably If the King of France should receive the Garter from our King of England he is thought to be so long his friend as he is pleased to wear it But if he throw it off he is King of France still as much as ever he was I know not what the Court or Courtiers of Rome may think or say in this business For what the Doctour here tells us about the Irish remonstrance is a personal business and not so circumstanced that one can draw any general conclusion or position from it But if they be only so much as said either to have conceived or countenanced any such opinion looked upon by all Catholicks and good Christians upon earth as ungrounded fals and impious it behoves them I should think both for the publick good honour of Catholick religion and their own credit to see it censured with all speed that the progress of Christianity be not stopped by it For no Pagan King will venture at a promise of everlasting felicity with the hazard of his Crown at the pleasure of one man whom he never saw nor knows Sure I am if any such opinion had been heard of when Christianity was first planted in Kingdoms it had never found footing in this world And if it be now countenanced the progress of Christianity is at an end I doubt not but that a Cotholick writer may in his controversy about religion if so he pleas defend an opinion also of any one or other who has professed the Catholick religion which he maintains But this is more then any one needs to do For religion is quite another thing derived from another authour and original established in another manner no less differing from an opinion then a fixed star in the firmament from the mist or fog ariseing from the earth Faiâ—h is one known thing but opinions are innumerable and endless If the various opinions entertained in mens minds but one only day in any City of England were all faithfully recorded at night they would exhibite to a Reader a most prodigious spectacle Opinions are infinitly various infinitly changable infinitely contradictory and absurd in the world Nor may we doubt but that thousands of them are contrary both to religion and law Angry rageing men and wanton women unfaithful servants and di obedient children theevs and murderers cheats and liars can we think when they act according to their own disordered passions that they hold not then an opinion that in such circumstances it is expedient for them so to do Wicked sinners hold wicked opinions be the religion what it will Gainsay and blame them in their heat and it will soon appear that they are stiff and resolved in that their opinion by the very fury of their wrath And what will not sycophants and flatterers either say or write to pleas the mind of those on whom they depend even against their own Rules of law and religion are fixt and stable and ever the same But opinions are moveable as water and never right but when conformable to a right rule of some good law and how far they are conformable so far are they right and no more And therfore it is a madness in any one who undertakes to write against the standard of a religion to object instead of that opinions of men For first one man may have an opinion to day and write it also in a book and yet few years after nay perhaps very few days change his mind Secondly the opinion of one man may be gain-said by a thousand as wise as he who live under the same law and religion Thirdly an opinion in a book is indeed nothing at all in the world but a meer pâ—atonick idea till it be reduced to some reall existence by circumstances which actuate it and make the action really to be and some opinions are worse then nothing For which reason all the multitude of opinions which sill up the books of learned Casuists may be exercises of wit indeed but no guids can they be unto action The direction of a liveing Oracle and Counsellour who can penetrate all present circumstances and prescribe by his wisdom on which side is then most of good and least of evil which is the only rule that directs a wise counsellour what to determin this only is our guide in doubts Wherfore the great Princes of the earth recurre not to books in their difficulties but use the wisdom of their counsel wise and grave men who must hear all