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
images to provoke God to anger and cast his own God behind his back Can he be Justly charged with all this only because he kept the Israelites from going up to Jerusalem and made them do those devotions at home which they were wont to do in that mother Citty Can only change of place suffice for the criminous imputation of idolatry where is the same adoration same rites same sacrifice same Priests and same God Is it possible that the same service and Common prayer-book read by Ministers of the same kind in London and Highgate be Gods service in one place and idolatry in the other all other things agreing but only the circumstance of place No indeed it is not possible it should be so But it is very possible it should be said so Mr. Stillingfleet here speaks it and speaks it stoutly on his own head even against all Divine authority and upright reason People may sin against ecclesiastical obedience indeed by not coming up to their parochial Church when they are commanded But they cannot only upon that ground be charged with idolatry or making strange gods or casting their own God behind their back He must be a very passionate Prelate and extreamly unjust and sinfully injurious who laies that imputation upon people upon no other ground or motive then that one circumstantial neglect of place And yet holy Scripture several times thus charges Jeroboam and puts such a blot upon his scutcheon both for his own idolatry and that into which he induced all the people that he is seldom or never mentioned without his black sirname Jeroboam who made Israel to sin If it were true at least as Mr. Stilling-fleet here speaks that Jeroboam and Israels sin were only a circumstance of place and that they and he did in their own tribes but what was done in Jerusalem then must it needs follow that there were in the Temple of Jerusalem such like representations as those calves set up by Jeroboam in Dan and Bethel and indeed the very same with them And thence we may gather for our learning if this be all true an axiom of great truth and concernment namely that one and the same piece of worship which pleases God in the Catholick Church is an abomination to him in the waies of heresie and schisme The very same thing which in Jerusalem and the tribe of Judah were called Cherubims in Samaria and all the rest of Israel apostatised from them was but a calf § 11. Charles the great a noble Emperour caused Books to be set forth against the Council of Nice where images had been established called Carolin Books and assembled also a Council at Frankford wherein both the said Nicen Council was condemned and all their reasons for images confuted c. That there were both in the Councill of Frankford and Nice too some Catholick Prelates who propounded difficulties against images cannot be denied For when ever any Councill meets together about any affair they dispute pro and con â—oth for and against it that the Prelates having all things set before their Eyes that can be said on both sides might be the better inabled to determine So doubtless it was done by the Apostles themselves in their great Councill held in Jerusalem about Circumcision where inquisitio magna facta est great inquisiâ—ion disputation and examination was made about it All this is certain enough But yet that either in Frankford or any where else were made after this their dispute any final or conclusive declaration against the use of images amongst Christians or that Charles the Emperour should either write books or cause any to be written either against images or the Council oâ— Nice wherein they had been then established or summon that Council of Frankford to withstand that other of Nice unanimously concluded by the Preâ—ates and confirmed by the general Pastour this is a thing so apparently false and fictitious that there needs no more but the knowledge of those very persons and times to prove it so Charles the Great was one that adored the Roman Church whereof he was himself a Member above all Emperours that ever was before or since his time The Council of Frankford wherein were little less then three hundred Catholick Prelates was peaceably concluded and no commotion followed upon it which must needs have risen if they had condemned another Council lately celebrated and confirmed by all pastoral authority Nor was that Frankford Councill ever annulled or any way censured either by P. Adrian or any after him Add to this that the said Councill was both begun and finished under the same Poâ—e Adrian and his Legates Theophilact and Stephâ—nus who had presided lately in the said Nicen Council where the lawful use of images was established It cannot possibly be imagined that the same Pope and Presidenes should conclude in Frankford quite contrary to what they ordered in Nice but seven or eight years before It is also certain that the said Council of Frankford was summoned and assembled not about images only as the Doctor imagines but about the question of our Lord Christ his filiation as all antient histories testifie against Foelix and Elipand two Spanish Bishops and Claudius Taurinensis who teaching that our Lord is rather to be called an adoptive than natural Son of God raised much commotion in Spain and France and this novelty of theirs was first condemned at Ratisbone and afterwards at Frankford For Foelix after his first condemnation repaired to the Emperour Charles his Court who then wintered at Rheginum and there submitting to the Prelates was sent thence to the presence of Pope Adrian where in the Cathedral of St. Peter he revok'd his Errour Elipand hearing of his submission grew more violent and by his books both regained Foelix again and disturbed all Germany as he had France and Spain before And now to prevent the infection the Pope and Charles the Emperour agreed to bring together a conciliar Assembly of Prelates in Frankford wherein presided Theophylact and Stephanus who had lately concluded the second Council of Nice Whence it clearly appears that Doctor Stillingfleet quite mistakes the business Now if the same Pope and his very self-same Legates presided first in the Nicen Council and then in Frankford as the Doctor acknowledges we may rationally enough conclude that the Nicen decrees about images lately finished in the East were made known to the West by their acceptation and promulgation at Frankford where the business of filiation was decided For this is indeed very true But no way can we think that the same Presidents would now undo what they had done a little before And that this is indeed the whole truth in this business may be yet confirmed by the authority of the Council of Senon kept not long after which in their 14. decree thus speaks Carolus magnus Francorum Rex Christianissimus in Francorum furdensi conventu ejusdem erroris iconomachorum suppressit insaniam quam inselicissimus quidam
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