We should ipso sacto renounce our Lord and all his whole Religion should we set up Moses his forbidden iâ—ols and make it our religion to worship them as heathens did But we are heartened incouraged and confirmed in our Christian Religion by looking on the faces of so many our glorious Martyrs holy Anchorets and Hermits pious Virgins and Confessours who profest this our Religion before us bravely triumphing by the power of Christs love and divine faith over sins allurements and deaths ugliest terrours though incompassed themselves with the like passions and infirmities we are our sâ—lves invironed round about And when we are entred into a Church amongst so many of our worthy predecessors we compose our selves more heartily to our devotion then otherwise we should do in imitation of them remembring now that we are come up to Mount Sion to the City of our living God to celestial Jerusalem and society of Angels to the Church of Primitive Christians conscript in the Heavens to God the Judge of all to the Spirits of just men perfected to Jesus the mediator of a new Testament and to the aspersion of blood speaking better things then Abel § 10. The Heathens saith he did ill in their idoll worship and yet the wiser sort among them testifie that they did not hold them to be Gods but worshiped God in them Our acute divâ—ne having now by his fine wit so clarified Moses law that it might not so much concern Idolaters as our vulgar painters he now begins so to purifie idolaters practice too that they may seem but in the same condition with our Catholick and best Christians And who would not give his penny to hear him act and speak The heathens all in general are so excused in their idolatry Aaron in his act of apostacy and Jeroboam in his great sin that they are all and each of them no otherwise faulty then the Church of Rome in his books Thus doth Mr. Stillingfleet convert idolatrous Nations while he sits dreaming in his closet Here he diminishes and there he exaggerates here he blacks with his pen and there he whitens and then he cryes out all is one all of the same measure all of the same colour And truly I believe the great Gyant Goliah and little David might thus be made equal if the Gyant were beheaded and cut off by the knees on one side and David on the other sâ—de set upon a high pair of stilts While Catholicks are made to do what they do not and heathens not to do what they do on a supposal that all this is true there can be no great difference Let us then hear him what he tells us of Heathens in general The wiser sort among them testifie quoth he that they worshiped not the idols as gods but worshiped God in them O very good Thus the wiser sort among the heathens say But first who are these wiser sort It behooved him to let us know this But yet for his own pocket-reasons he does not But 2ly what says he himself to it O that is needless for his reader will understand well enough what he ought to think when such a Doctor as Stillingfleet tells him what the wiser sort have thought No body would think with fools but with the wiser sort alwayes And his whole discourse proceeds on this supposed knowledge of the wiser sort and according to it concludes We cannot therefore doubt of his mind But have we no wise sort of antient beleevers who lived among the heathens to testifie unto us what the heathens did Have we no Apostles and Prophets to hearken to no renowned and infallible persons to inform us Surely we have and those so many that we need not have recourse either unto persons unknown amongst the heathens for their testimony or to Mr. Sillingfleet the ingenious trâ—fler He tells us that the heathens did not worship their Idols as Gods but worshiped God in them But our Apostles and Prophets tell us contrary things Hear Moses speak who lived among the thickest of the Heathens To whom did they sacrifice O Moses whom did the heathens worship Immâ—laverunt Demoniis non Deo Deut. 32. They worshiped not God but devils they sacrificed to devils saith he and not to God The Nations change their gods and indeed they are no Gods saith Jeremy ch 2. but my people have changed their glory unto an Idol Baruch another Prophet brings in his testimony chap. 4. You have provoked him who made you saith he even the eternal God sacrificing to Devils and not to God The holy Psalmist he tells us no less peremptorily That they immolated their Sons and Daughters to Devils and sacrificed to the idols of Canaan Ps 105. and that all the gods of the Heathens are Devils Ps 95. Saint Paul our own Christian Doctor is bold and expresly testifies both against Stillingfleet and his wiser heathens That the things which Centiles immolated they sacrificed to Devils and not to God 1 Cor. 10. And yet after all this our Doctor is not ashamed to justifie those his clyents the heathens They did not worship their idolls saith he for Gods but worshiped God in them And whom shall we here believe Moses Jeremy Baruch David St. Paul and all our Christian Doctors or Stillingfleet rather and his wifer heathens unknown to himself They sacrificed to devils and not to God they changed their glory into an Idol they irritated the eternal God immolating to devils and not to God they sacrificed their sons and daughters to devils not to God Thus speak our Prophets and Apostles But Mr. Sillingfleet affirms they sacrificed to God they imolated to God they worshiped god and not devils they worshiped not the idols but God in them But I discern well enough the cause of his mistake Because they abstracted the general notion of God and applied it each one to his own idols therefore he thinks he may say they worshiped God in them But this is a gross mistake For to worship God in a thing and to worship a thing for God who is no God are two very differing cases Christians worship God in Christ and they do well heathens who worshiped their Idols for God did ill Cromwell our late Usurper after he had murdâ—reâ— our good King and set the Crown upon his own head would have taken it well if his Army had toâ—d him they honoured him for their King but not if they had said they worshipped the King in him The first word had sounded in his ears as a grateful slattery the other as treason to himself To â—bstract the Deity and apply it to another subject unto whom it does not belong is as far as we are able to behead the true God and set hâ—s Crown upon the shoulders of usurping devils And because the true real Deity cannot be removed either by the pleasure of the Usurper or worshiper therefore are these idols deviâ—s and false Gods God cannot be worshâ—ped in them because he is not
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 onely 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 VVife 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 propunded unto Mr. Stillingfleet 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 resolves affirmatively I affirm saith he that a Christian by vertue of his being so is bound to joyn to 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 body either that is or has been in the world is liable to errour falshood and corruptions And what necessity indeed can there be in me to joyn in any Communion which may go astray and mislead me since I cannot do worse if I remain free and all alone and may perhaps do better But these contradictions are small matters So long as the Doctor opposes the Catholick Church out of which they are all fallen he is a Protestant good enough whatever he hold in particular either contrary to himself or any others The first question which is the occasion and subject of this his present book he resolves negatively averring that the same motives which might secure one born and bred in the Catholick Church to continue in it cannot secure a Protestant convinced by them to imbrace it And this his Assertion he discourses at large and confirms by various Syllogismes because invincible hinderance may perhaps excuse the one but not the other because the Protestant is safe in his own Church and therefore has no necessity to leave it because there is imminent danger in the Roman Church where there is so much Idolatry so many hinderances of good life and devotion so much divisions so much uncertainty of faith in it Unto these resolutions and argumentations of his the Catholick Proposer adjoyned presently his own reply a very rational me thinks and good one Hereupon the Doctor wrote and set forth this his present book called A Discourse against the Idolatry c. both to inlarge his own arguments and to disable the Catholick Gentlemans Reply And this was the occasion purpose and subject of the book you put in my hand to peruse and write to you the substance of it with some few brief thoughts of my own upon it Indeed the whole book is a kind of Academick Act or Commencement such a one as we have once a year in our famous Oxford Cambridge written and printed for peoples delight and pastime and if so it please the Stars for his own honour and preferment by our Doctor And it came forth very seasonably about a fortnight before the Oxford Act to save the wits living here abouts the great charges and some kind of pains of a Journey thither being now furnished well enough aforehand with as subtile and good an Act as that may haply be at our own Doors and which may please the women somewhat better in our mother tongue The conclusions defended in this Holborn Act are these three 1. Popery is idolatrous And this is accomplished in two of his positions which he calls Chapters 2. Popery is a hinderance to a good life and devotion And this is dispatched at one other breathing named his third Chapter 3. Popery is divided and disunited in it self And this pust out in his fifth Chapter which concludes his book And in midst of this great Act rises up a prevaricating Tripos to refresh our wearisomeness and make a little sport And he takes up the whole Scene of his fourth Chapter And his Theme is Fanatiscime the Church of Romes Fanatiscisme or the Fanaticism of the Roman Church And upon my word it has made many people merry not the softer sex only but the rougher and more serious mankind And all do so clap and commend the man that one may well believe he has received his reward Idolatry ill life and divisions of the Roman Church which are his three less wild conclusions we have in part already heard of even as we have heard talk of Europe Asia and Africa But Fanaticisme his merriment is I think the proper and peculair discovery of Dr. Stillingfleet himself And he may deserve either to give or take a sirname from it as Scipio Africanus took from Africa and Vesputius Americus gave to America his new found Land What is it that wit and industry cannot bring to light if they be joyntly bent both of them upon the search And a new discovery especially of a rich pleasant Country full of curiosities is so pleasant to the Discoverer himself so naturally pleasant that I cannot but think that Doctor Stillingfleet at his invention of Fanaticisme wherewith he hoped to make many others merry laughed heartily
AN ACCOUNT OF Dr. Still 's late BOOK AGAINST The Church of ROME Together With a short Postil upon His TEXT Non omnia sunt quae videntur nec videntur omnia quae sunt 1672. ΤΩ ΚΑΘΟΛΙΚΩ Stillingfleeton THe Book Sir which taken up with better affairs you sent unto me that I might after I had read it over draw an Abridgment of it for you with my own thoughts super-added in the close by way of a short Comment thereon is the second production as it seems of Doctor Stillingfleet against Popery Less displeasing it is I think to a Reader and nothing so tiresome as some other Books which have issued forth on that Side against the ways of Catholick Religion For there is some Truth in his Citations a seasoning of Salt and comical Wittiness sprinkled all over and no such thick gross venom of maliciousness wherewith other Books of that kind are overâ—harged appearing though much of it lie â—id throughout his Book Indeed he perâ—erts all things by his various subtilty But that is no more but what his own same and interest here principally aimed at would reâ—uire And we must give him leave to deâ—ide also and play and sport himself in his Book as a Leviathan in his own waters It â—s his pastime and pleasure and a sweetness qsteemed perhaps necessary to his life And who would be so ill-natur'd as to envy it him Besides it is a pretty piece of Rhetorick both fit and very efficacious to create in his Protestant Readers an opinion of his unerring confidence which is the one great end of his Labours And if we be thus kind he will in recompence of that our civility give leave I suppose to Catholicks who see him so jocund and supinely careless in his errours thence to conclude the strange inconsiderate security of the merry man But we must know Sir that this his elaborate Book against the Church of Rome as he speaks although it be his second yet is it not intended to be his last For If Cathoicks have any thing to say quoth he either against our Church or in defence of their own let them come into the open Field from whenâ—â— they have of late so wisely withdrawn themselveâ— finding so little success in it Thus he speaâ—â— in his Preface threatning if I understanâ—â—â—â— him right another Knocker as stout a oâ—â—â— as this can be if any one dare to appear â—gainst him or say so much as Boh to a Gooâ—â— And these words of his import I think a Challenge called commonly a Defiance which Catholicks as soon as they had read thought it as much their duty as it sounded to be the Doctors desire to fit their Slings unto their Arms and meet him But the thing proved alas to be but a Copy of 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 Stillingfleet 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 Papists 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 Mahometan 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 thâ— whole charges and then answer him when they had done for his satisfaction But we poor Creatures can obtaint 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 Doctors 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 silent 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 a 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
himself He begins his Book with the Roman Idolatry and he does wisely in it For Idolatry is such a terrible thundering charge that in all Readers judgments that Church is half condemned already which hath that crime so much as laid upon it Men therefore choose rather to be accounted Atheists than Idolaters For the first argues wit the other stupidity Nor will one man of a hundred trouble himself to read over a book written on any purpose of clearing from that enormous crime either himself or religion professed by the Author of it Be the imputation never so false yet is it still a blasting imputation which kills and overthrows not so much by proving as by naming it He must needs be impious who is an Idolater and he must be an Idolater who is called so Be it never so unjust it is still a witty trick to cry out against him as an Idolater whose honour and livelihood we would here in England undermine Sad experience has proved this to be true too too often And the Great God of Heavens anger lyes I fear heavily upon us for it This thus far Now forward IMAGE-IDOLATRY The Church of Rome worships God by Images and is therefore guilty of Idolatry by giving to the Creature the worship due only to the Creator For God having forbidden any such sort of worshiping him by his own law and commandments given by Moses wherein he forbids his people to make any kind of image pesel themunah eikon glypton sculptile any thing represented either by carving toole or pensil caâ—â— not own that worship nor can any such worshâ—â— terminate upon God And the reason of thâ—â— law of Moses is unchangeable which is thâ—â— God's infinite and incomprehensible Deity cannâ—â— be represented For which reason the wisest 〈◊〉 Heathen both particular men and Natioâ—â— judged all such representations of the invisiâ—â— Godhead to be incongruous and unbecoming his glory And if this were inconsistent with Gods nature and will in the old Law much more in the new where we are taught to worship God in spirit and truth and to have no low unworthy thought of God It might therefore seem more rational to worship God in the Sun and Moon which have more of God in them and to say our prayers to the Sun and Moon then to any image or shadow the same argument which excuses the one will justifie the other much more For this reason St. Paul teaches that the Godhead is not like to gold or silver or stone and blames those who change the glory of the incorruptible God into the image of corruptible man And the Heathens in doing this did ill although the wiser sort among them testifie that they did not hold their statues to be Gods but that they worshipped God in them And yet some antient Fathers disputed notwithstanding against that heathen practice and counted it idolatry Wherefore Germanus Patriark of Constantinople sayes expresly that Christians make no representation of the invisible Deity and Damascene that it is madness to go about it Wherefore the Synode of Constantinople and that of Frankford pleaded hard against the making of any images amongst Christians however the second Council of Nice vainly went about to defend them as innocent and useful helps Finally Moses himself explicates by his deeds the meaning of his own Law when he was so highly displeased with Aaron for the golden Calf he had made the people in his absence And yet Aaron did not make it to bring the people into heathen idolatry but to give them only a Symbole of the Angel who was to go before the people As also the two calves set up by Jeroboam in Dan and Bethel were set up only to keep the people from going up to Jerusalem and not to bring them to the idolatry of heathens And therefore Primitive Christians never used any images as the learned of the Church of Rome acknowledge § 1. This is the sum of the Doctors Discourse in this his first Chapter And he cannot but expect his Reader should have a mighty conceit of either his most high or most deep Divinity who hath converst so much with the learned fort of the Church of Rome the graver sort of Philosophers and wiser sort of Heathens Nothing does he here deliver that was so much as thought of by the common sort the vulgar sort the ordinary sort of Mankind And O what pleasure and content of heart will it be unto him if he could meet with an adversary of his learned sort too who viewing his airy subtilties should oppose him seriously as if he were serious himself and then distinguish as if he were dealing with some solid Divine and then ply him with proofs and testimonies refell him by shorter enthymems and longer syllogismes subtilly search in what Mood and figure he speaks and then tell him how his consequence flaggs or antecedent is ambiguous till he have learendly consumed a hundred pages in refutation of a trifle Then surely will the Doctor be judged by all parties to be as he would be thought to be an able man § 2. The Catholick Chruch uses indeed both in their publick and private oratories some pious representations of our holy Lord either in his passion or birth resurrection or ascention or miraculous working of some divine miracle And these holy figures of his are accompanied commonly with some others of his blessed Virgin Mother the renowned Apostles valorous Martyrs holy Confessors chast Virgins or other happy followers of our Lord who through many tribulations and a constant exercise of Christian vertues have passed hence to a blessed life All which do mightily avail unto our retiredness and recollection when we enter into the house of prayer a holy place separated and sanctified for Gods service from our own houses or the streets And the respect or esteem we have for such figures is nothing but what we bear either unto the sacred histories recorded of the same persons or to those good rules of life and promises of Gospel which those Worthies have imbraced for the incouragement and imitation of us who are now strugling in that wicked world which they overcame before us For example as we reverence the history of Christs incarnation sounding in our ear so do we look upon the figure of it represented to our eye As we love the story of St. Mary Magdalens conversion so do we like her picture As we honour St. Pauls life and martyrdome so do we respect his image And St. Lawrences most cruel passion upon the hot burning Gridiron when it is represented to us in a picture we are in the self same manner affected towards it as we are to the invincible vertue and patience there shown for the Love and honour of Jesus our Lord whose steps he followed So that what authentick history records to us in words of the vertue and valour of any of our Christian Ancestors or what holy Gospel tells us of the glory and crown to be
rendred unto the good works of sobriety charity chastity purity patience and the like the same is without words painted unto us by these compendious hieroglyphicks serving more speedily then words can do to fasten us unto a strict recollection in our prayers by one short glance about us and to a fea◠and awfulness of Gods presence in that place where we are met together for his Service accompanied with the figures of so many of our pious Ancestours who are gone to Heaven before us and also to a dissipation of any worldly thoughts that may as they are apt enough to do at that time come along with us there unto our hinderance All this benefit we have by our Pictures when we have haply no book to look upon or know not by our ignorance to read or cannot by darkness or other lettance attend unto that labour And this is all the whole business of Images as to Religion In the Road of Philosophy trodden by School-Divines where thousands of conclusions over and above faith are advanced and opposed by one another unto the sharpning of their wits many things are said about every thing as the creation resurrection and thè like which faith in the same things is silent of Nor are we in our defence of faith concerned at all in them And it may be essily discerned by our Catholick practice what use we make of our Images when of a hundred people entring into a Church not one of them ever casts his eye wistly upon them but contented with a general glance compose themselves presently unto their prayers and meditations they keep silently in spirit towards God And when our pictures are so sullied and spoiled that they will no more serve our use we put them into the fire as we would do also a page of sacred Scriptures utterly obliterated and fouled § 3. Indeed all the whole business of the use of Images at all is but a matter of discipline and government for the help of people in the great work of recollection and prayer as is the use of Churches and the musick used in them with the harp viol and other instruments the use of beads and prayer-books All which our Religion could spare and yet be not at all impaired as to any its essential or substantial parts Nay there inconveniences in any one of these things Nor do I know any good thing in this world without some inconvenience or other It is enough for us that the conveniences and benefits of any good we have or use are more and greater than the inconveniences be Many worthy Prelates in Christianity have at times excepted very strongly against Organs as some hindrance of the great work of spiritual contemplation which Christian people meet to practice together in their holy assemblies the great paramount work of Christianity especially at Mass But these men although moved unto that their exception by a Zeal not evil yet were they fain to yield at last unto the prevailing reasons of other Prelates which overbore their lesser ones Some other of our Catholick Doctors and Prelates would have had us to have used no pictures that Jews and Pagans might not catch at that pretence to cavil against our Christianity as they did But all these submitted at last unto the prevailing part by whom they were made to understand that the inconveniences they urged were but imaginary and small the conveniences great and real There have been not a few who have excepted against much vocal prayer because it took up too much of the time which would be better employed in the more principal work of prayer in spirit But yet could they not carry it although their reasons were very plausible aad good because that high and Angelical prayer in spirit agreed not equally to all men or to any one consisting of flesh and blood equally at all times and places as vocal prayer does Some have disliked even our material Temples built up so sumptuously as they are because God immense and incomprehensible dwells not in buildings made by mans hands Heaven is his Seat and Earth his Footstool Yet could they not obtain that our Churches should be therefore pulled down or not built up Prayer-books were nothing at all in use amongst Christians in primitive times when they prayed almost altogether in spirit and used no other vocal prayer but that our Lord taught us And yet this hinders us not either to make such books or use them in following times Instead of our beads in wood or mettal they used in ancient times a bag of little stones by the emptying whereof they knew that they had said over our Lords prayer a hundred or perhaps three hundred times according as any one in his devotion had prefixed to himself every day of his life to do for Gods glory and service And there might be inconveniences pretended against our present beads especially those of gold and pearl But they will not be thrown away for that Our Church-musick has been more than once opposed and that by Prelates most holy and renowned men who deemed it an unsufferable lettance to the spiritual recollection which Christians ought above all things to attend unto that they may have our Lords good Spirit and his holy operations in them especially when they meet together at their holy Synaxis But Church-musick is kept up to this day notwithstanding their reason against it which is very good for other reasons no. less good and great than it specified and urged by the far greater number of pious Prelates for it And yet if all or the greater part of Catholick Prelates meeting together should take away all these outward helps from us beads and books singing and Church-musick pictures and Churches and all finding the inconveniences to be now greater than they have been and weightier than any convenience we have by them though the thing would seem very strange to us yet ought we I think to obey them resignedly and attend wholly unto our spiritual mediations either alone or in our Eucharistian meetings and to the other good works commanded or counselled us in Gospel in expectation of our future bliss and eternal happiness in God which can never be taken from us though all things of discipline or helps in government be alterable § 4. And now it is time to turn back and view the subject of this Chapter that we may see if any one period in it be true and pertinent He tells us first that Papists worship God by Images which logically is not true Then that a representation of the invisible Deity cannot be made which is impertinent Then that the worship given to God by an image does not terminate upon God which is neither pertinent nor true And so he proceeds on to the very end of his Chapter with sounds either empty or false or both neither heeding or caring what he says so he do but mention learned papists and wiser heathens which may help to butterress up his
reputation I cannot but remember here the shadow or Ghost in Virgil which Juno made of Aeneas to draw her beloved Turnus out of the field It seemed to fight and threaten and press on and give back But nothing at all was done really Tum dea nube cavâ tenuem sine viribus umbram In faciem Aeneae visu mirabile monstrum Dardaniis ornat telis clypeumque jubasque Divini assimilat capitis dat inania verba Dat sine mente sonum gressusque effingit euntis Morte obitâ quales fama est volitare figuras Aut quae sopitos deludunt somnia sensûs Ac primas laeta ante acies exultat imago Irritatque virum telis ac voce lacessit And such a shadow of controversie is all this present Chapter and his whole book also a foming face and feeble force big but empty words rumbling and yet insignificant sounds quick profers and no progress a daring shadow or armed Ghost without either body or bones And yet such a thing as defies the whole Catholick Church steps out from the rest of his Camp and defies them all alone defies them both in letters syllables and words And this is all For he touches no body Because Catholicks by the advice and allowance of their Prelates do keep amongst them the representation of the divine Founder of their Religion who appeared amongst us by his unspeakable Love in form of a Man and of some of his holy followers in the way he chalked out for us therefore he talks of Moloch and Milcom Osiris and Isis Chemosh and Astaroth Baal Peor and Rimmon golden Bulls and Remphan the calves of Dan and Bethel And what is all this for Wy to over-run Papists and beat us down How can it do that These idols were set up by heathens in opposition to the true God and in the very place of God as darkness in the night time is in the place of light This is true what then and therefore I must not forsooth keep the figure of Jesus Christ or of St. Paul or other domestick of my own religion for my own incouragement therein What likeness what consequence is there in all this Which is Remphan and where is Moloch Which is the Calf and where is the Bull Nay and here it is worth our observing too that Protestant Gentlemen and Ladies of England Ministers and Bishops too have all pictures in their Chambers as well as Catholicks even those of our holy Apostles and Martyrs as well as others And there they are good and lawful figures but in our Chambers they are Bulls of Basan and Calves of Bethel among us Catholick pictures are against Moses his Law but theirs are not so Although they be representations both in Heaven above and Earth below and Waters under earth expressy 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 thâ—s 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 devâ—ut 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 Baal 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 Remphan 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 Gâ—d by it as Catholicks are wont the hill before innocent is now become a Baal Peor the idol of the Moabites A Citizen 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 Sepharvaim 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 turned into Nesroch the idol of Senacherib Some are so bold when they either see or hear of any corrupted by the French-pox and lechery to thank God who has preserved them and worship God by it And thereby sin no less grievously than Maacham the Moâ—her of Asa King of Judah in worshipping her idol Priap or Nimphleseth A gentleman called upon God not in words onely but very heartily when a troublesome Fly got into his Eye and much afflicted him but he little thought that by that piety of his he had sinned as deeply as they that worship Baalzebuâ— 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
And of the same braâ—en statue of Christ our Lord write also Theophilact Damascenus and several others And here we may take notice by the way that charity devotion set up statues to our Lord but apostasy malice pulls them down And whether Dr. Stillingfleet who busies himself so much to cast down the images of Jesus our Lord and his holy followers would refuse to have his own set up for his great pains either in Guildhall or Cheapside he knows best himself Truly if that were done I do not believe that any of his neighbours or Countreymen would take him then for a calf of Bethel Of the Images of the virgin Mary made by St. Luke there is much fame amongst the antient writers in particular Theodorus Simeon Metaphrastes and Nicephorus The last of which does also attest in his second book that the said precious relick was carried up and down the whole habitable world of Christians who looked upon it with a most greedy and unsatisfied devotion The same Nicephorus adds moreover how Constantius the Son of Constantine translated the relâ—cks of St. Luke from Thebes of St Andrew from Achaia and of St. Timothy from Ephesus unto Constantinople with a vast concourse and joy of Chrâ—stian people and there with all honour and reverential respect inshrined them in a cathedral Church dedicated to the Apostles Of the image also of Christ our Lord imprinted by himself in a handkercher applied to his own face and sent to King Abagarus who requested his picture write Evagrius Metaphrastes and others Of another image of Jesus Christ made by Nicodemus which being ignominiously crucified by the Jews wrought many wonderous miracâ—es we have a solemn testimony of Athanasius cited in the foâ—rth action of the seventh great Synod And all this testifies that Christians in primitive times were affected towards holy pictures and relicks as Catholicks are at this day at least not such haters and vilifiers of them as is Dr. Stillingfleet Nor can I conceive how any of the learned in the Church of Rome should be ignorant of these things Nay the very Church of England which this Doctor pretends to defend hath lately put the images of the Apostles and Primitive Saints into their common-prayer-book and Primers printed by authority So that if the Doctor had opened his eyes he might have seen clear enough that all this talk of his is now unseasonable however it might have passed well enough in the beginning of the furious reformation when they pulled down all sacred figures and suffered none to be set up either sacred or common When husbands broke their wives pictures and wives their husbands least they should give ill example to St. Peter and Paul or incourage any of the twelve Apostles to creep up again upon their walls When children in obedience and duty to their parents spitting upon their effigies said as they were taught to say I renounce the devil and all his works When all the people flâ—cked together in all places to tear down Churches and Chappels and private oratories in houses with a Now boys we are free men let us eat drink and play for to morrow we shall dye No more duty of any our daily prayers no more fasting no more vows no more troublesome adoration upon our knees no more pining meditations no more pennance no more restitution no more priest no more altar no more cross or holy rood no more Peter and Paul to be seen no more languishing memories of Saints no more obedience to the erring Church no more self-examination no more conscience scruples c. Those times indeed were mad enough But now people as newly awaked from wine begin to be wiser and look more soberly about them Even Denmark and Holland consider now in cold blood the many sad mischiefs they acted in hot nor is our own Countrey wholly ignorant of the irreparable ruins of those mad times However our Doctor will not have his sport spoiled nor yet his game stopt Punchienella though Bartholmew fair be ended may be acted still either in Lincolns Infields or Chairing cross or any where else both now and then and seven years hence It will be still new to some body He may also know that King James a wise and learned Prince in the year 1617. gave order that the pictures of Saints should be set up in his Chappel of Holy-wood house in Edinborough as Spotswood attests in his history of the Church of Scotland And he cannot be ignorant that several times order and command has been given to Protestant people by our English Bishops that they bow and do reverence at the name of Jesus when it s spoken or read in the Câ—uâ—ch Now the name of Jesus and figure of Jesus is all one thing the one of them representing to the ear what the other does to the eye All this he might have considered But his tongue is hot and he must speak although it be against himself and the very Church he justifies as much as it is against the Church he arraignes Indeed his whole discourse is so frivously subtile and subtilely frâ—volous that no Church needs much to heed what he sayes This I know and am câ—â—tain of that although he should be confuted at large and confounded for ever by any Catholick Writer yet shall we be never the nearer to any quietness and peace For the next man that wants a rich benefice will if he have but this mans confidence collect another book of popish idolatry out of this book of Dr. Still as he gather'd this of his out of Henry Moore Jeremy Taâ—lor and sundry others his Predecessors not heeding at all any answer that has been given by former Catholicks to the talk any more than Dr. Stillingfleet does here They will ever write one out of another and never regard what has been said to any one of them in defence of that which they oppose abecedarian scriblers Nor can there be any end so long as there is a bishoprick or fat benefice to hope for and Catholick hands so tied up that they can print nothing unto their own justification without insuperable difficulties and hazard I have read in London the Defiances of one Fencer to another both of them in print Who accordingly do meet in Bear-garden without any controul there to baste one another lustily for the peoples pleaâ—ure And it would be a pastime I think equally delightful not less profitable and somewhat more civil to see two men reason down one another We poor men should esteem it a great favour to us if our adversary might read his charge and we our defence even in Bear-garden Since neither in Churches Halls Universities or Schools are we permitted to speak or print any thing to speak for us And Doctor Stillingfleet who hath made his defiance already may which he hath not yet done appoint the day Not men and fencers onely but bulls and bears cocks and dogs all are permitted to defend themselves when they are invaded but onely we poor old Christians whose Religion hath blessed our Land fifteen hundred years As if it were agreed on all hands that we should never be rightly understood Mr. H. Thorndike a grave Divine and and learned Doctor in our present English Church both affirms and strongly proves in his book called Just weights and measures that Roman Catholicks are idolaters no way adding also That they who separate from the Church of Rome as Idolaters are thereby schismaticks before God Thus speaks that learned man the Pâ—aenix of divines who only dares to be honest And the mere authority of this eminent Protestant may suffice to evacuate all the sophistry of this whole chapter of this Doctors book as also of that which follows in the next place about our holy Host and Saints Now Sir I must bid you farewel And that you may not think me either idle or neglective of my duty and respects to you pray give me leave to tell you that what you see here printed but now was written and ready for the Preâ—s in August last And before October ended I had finished all my work upon Dr. Stillingfleets Book such-like familiar Commentaries as these upon his first chapter be But in all these six months I could get no more printed for you either at home or abroad than this poor fifth part of the whole after my many travels vexations expences and dangers Such obstructions are made about the Presses and so many violences offered here continually far above any used since we were born that I can see no possibility for any whole book of ours to shoot that gulf be our cause never so innocent and good Nay they will here print our catholick books themselves as if they were their own as Thomas a Kempis Granada Parsons Resolutions Drexellius and the like But if we be taken printing them the PRESS is broken PRINTER punished and we if we be found in danger of our lives And therefore I beseech you Sir be content with thus much or rather this little The rest you shall have in written hand In the mean time let Dr. Still triumph and crow as he pleases He is made and has made him self sure enough Although he hath defied the whole catholick world and all that know of it having something to say are both willing and ready yet will no man come forth into the open field against him because they cannot He thinks himself wise no doubt wiser than millions of men and may do so still For my part Sir I find him as wise as one man and no more Farewel FINIS