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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58886	Dr. Sherlock's preservative considered the first part, and its defence, proved to contain principles which destroy all right use of reason, fathers, councils, undermine divine faith, and abuse moral honesty : in the second part, forty malicious calumnies and forged untruths laid open, besides several fanatical principals which destroy all church discipline, and oppose Christs divine authority : in two letters of Lewis Sabran of the Society of Jesus.	Sabran, Lewis, 1652-1732.	1688 (1688)	Wing S217; ESTC R16398	73,086	90

Dr. SHERLOCK'S PRESERVATIVE CONSIDERED The First Part and its Defence Proved to contain Principles which destroy all right use of Reason Fathers Councils undermine Divine Faith and abuse Moral Honesty In the Second Part Forty malicious Calumnies and forged Untruths laid open besides several Fanatical Principles which destroy all Church-Discipline and oppose Christs Divine Authority In Two Letters OF F. LEWIS SABRAN of the Society of JESUS With Allowance LONDON Printed by Henry Hills Printer to the King 's Most Excellent Majesty for His Houshold and Chappel And are sold at his Printing-house on the Ditch-side in Black-Fryers 1688. TO THE READER YOU will find in the Postscript an Answer to the Preface set before the Defence which being a Heap of undigested Untruths and ill-contriv'd Calumnies I conceived it most proper to expose them that relate to me in particular after I have wiped off the Dirt which the Defence hath cast upon the Churches Doctrin Besides I thought my self bound in Justice and good Manners to yield the Preference to the Honest Footman whose Style is not near so Lewd and Unmannerly as the outragious Preface-maker's who may with reason be supposed a Minister that CANONICAL GOWN having these late Years been a constant Sanctuary to so many Libelling Slandering Prophane Reviling Peevish and Uncharitable Pens that the greatest part of those Books which in any of these kinds have appeared of late Years in this Kingdom have been the notunnatural Issues of these Meek Charitable Humble and Loyal Levites SIR THO' you have declared to some Friends That you do not conceive your self under any Obligation of Answering my first Letter the Licensing of a Book being I perceive but a Friendly Office and a cheap one too when Conscience only and Reputation may be concern'd in it and not obliging the Licenser to boggle at any Calumnies he meets with in it nor at any Falshood that imposes upon the Readers tho' in a Concern of so high a nature as the True Faith and Eternal Salvation However I will tempt your good Nature and Civility once more hoping that you may at least make use of Dr. Sherlock's happy Contrivance and when you are sensible that Five or Six Weeks Endeavors cannot suggest any Answer that may appear to Public View without betraying the weakness of your Cause and the unwarrantable Methods us'd in its defence you will find out some Honest Footman who will not blush to own all the Wrong and impertinent Reasoning which must make up a seeming Answer I am confident how unkindly soever you may deal with others that you owe Dr. Sherlock so much Deference as not to License a Book Printed in his Defence without his Perusal and Allowance Wherefore not to trouble the Footman whose Circumstances as we are told can expect but a small allowance of time I shall look on the Answers given by Dr. Sherlock's Second as offered or at least owned by him and Examin how he supports those Principles by which I pretend that he overthrows First All right use of Common Sense It is a Catholic Principle That he who has an Infallible Guide need not mistrust him so as to enquire farther whether he be in the right Way tho' he may and ought to improve himself in the knowledge of the Way he is directed in Dr. Sherlock in opposition to this self-evident Principle Preservat Fol. 3. charges the Catholic Church with this great Crime That it will not allow the reading of Heretical Books adding That God not only allows but requires it This seemed to me extravagant not to say impious and to all those who have inherited from St. Paul that Faith to which he exacts so firm and unwavering an adherency that if an Angel from Heaven should teach us Gal. 1. 8. any thing in opposition to it we ought not to mind him or to return him any other Answer than Anathema How can said I this positive Certainty stand with an Obligation of reading Heretical Books which oppose that Faith to frame by them and settle a Judgment By what Text doth God deliver this Injunction I asked farther how standing to the first Principles of Common Sense a Church that declares all Men bound to Judge for themselves could Countenance Laws which exact of Dissenters that they stand not to that their Judgment but Comply against it and that constrain their liberty of Judging by the dread of Excommunications Sequestrations Imprisonments Exclusion from the chiefest Properties of free-born Subjects even by Hanging and Quartering which is to make it Death not to act against a strict Duty of Conscience acknowledg'd by the Persecutors to be such These were three material Questions I waited Six Weeks for an Answer and he returns me at last by his Footman this wonderful one That I leave out what was said of the Bible Dr. Sherlock blaming the Church of Rome for not suffering her People to dispute their Religion or to read Heretical Books nay not so much as to look into the Bible it self that I take it for granted that all the Writings of Protestant Divines are Heretical Books nay the Bible it self too I wonder not the Doctor should give this his Answer by a Footman he hath yet I conceive some remnants of Modesty But is there here one word of Answer to my three Questions No not a syllable nor of Truth neither I reflected on no Divines of any Persuasion I found Heretical Books in the number of those which he blames our Church for not recommending and which he assures us God requires the reading of This being an Objection of a new Coin and a Proof of his own Invention I shew'd the Unreasonableness of the one and asked an Instance of the other passing by that trivial Calumny so often Answered That the Catholic Church suffers not her People to look into the Bible it self which supposes that we lock up the Bible as the Romans did their Sybillin Books whereas many thousands are commanded by the Catholic Church setting aside all temporal Concerns to make the reading of the Word of God their continual study and to teach daily the Doctrin of it to those who not having learnt to read or being of too weak a Judgment to carry away the Sense of a Book or too much taken up by their Trades and Employs by which they support their Families and earn themselves a necessary Livelihood have not the Leisure or Capacity to gather the Articles of Christian Belief or the different Parts of Christian Duties from it for to all others who conceive they may reap a Benefit from it leave is never deny'd to read the Bible translated to that end into all vulgar Tongues In the close an Answer is attempted and the Author of the Defence tells me He is not content with an Implicit Faith That we are commanded to try the Spirits and to try all things These are the Texts produc'd to maintain Dr. Sherlock's three Positions That we are obliged to read Heretical

about infallibility We have the concurrent testimony of all Churches that we have those Canonical Books But let us suppose a while that your Church were infallible what greater certainty for that is the point you know which the Doctor was upon have you of it than we have of any particular Point of Faith as for the certainty of Reason and Argument That we have and would fain see you shew more What we believe is according to Scripture and doth not Contradict either Sense or Reason nor any other Principle of Knowledge Answer Never was a starved Cause so pitifully defended No wonder a Footman only doth not blush to appear in its Defence the Learned and judicious Gentlemen of the Temple had each of them too much Honor Conscience and Wit and therefore none of them would Patronize so wretched a Cause and support such weak Contradictions as the Excellent Master of the Temple so the Preface-maker calls him had blundered out Pray Sir review this last Discourse blush that your License Authorises it and hereafter have some care of your Reputation and set not your Name to such Stuff This is the Case on one side there is supposed an Infallible Interpreter of the Christians great Law-Book for thus Dr. Sherlock states the Case on the other are some men far the greater part unlearned and weak who allow not any sense to this Book which seems to them to Contradict either their Sense or Reason or any other Principle of their Knowledge And I am asked whether I proceed more prudently in receiving the sense of the Law from that Interpreter which is actually supposed infallible or in proceeding by the second method Sir if you are so weak or wilful as not to declare that I have a greater certainty in submitting to that infallible Interpreter your Counsel is not worth the asking and I appeal to that of the judicious Gentlemen of the Temple But I must not omit the untruth couched in those words We have the Concurrent Testimony of all Churches that we have those Canonical Books For no part of the Catholic Church no part of the Greek Scismatic Churches own the same Canon of scripture-Scripture-Books which you do Preservative Ibid. In particular we are assured that the Faith which we profess is agreeable to Scripture Answer fol. 5. If he means they have the same Proofs for this which Catholics have for the infallibility of the Church that is for the Continued Being of that Church which assures us that She is infallible in directing us for a Church Erring in so Fundamental a Point would cease to be the Church of Christ then it is evidently fase since each Christian in this Age hath the same Evidence of Her being the Church of Christ and of Her teaching all Truth and consequently of Her being as She declares infallible in thus teaching which he hath of Christ to wit the ancient Prophesies those of Christ himself his Miracles and the Miracles wrought in that Church according to the Promises of Christ besides the Conversion of Nations to Christianity c. These things Protestants do not so much as pretend unto as Proofs of their particular Sense in Interpreting Scripture Defence fol. 10. This is a pretty Conceit the infallibility of the Church that is to say the Being of the Church can't a Church be without being infallible We have heard much of Miracles but could never see any Answer Do you allow such Answers Sir that have so little of Sense and less of Piety Can a Church remain the Church of Christ and yet teach her self to be infallibly guided by the Spirit of Christ whil'st she is abandon'd to the Spirit of Error and that so far as Idolatry and the Evacuating of the Passion of Christ Are we come to own that Herod might well be excused from believing in Christ because he had heard much of his Miracles but could never see any Well Sir when you License such an other Discourse add to your Titles that of a Christian that we may think you are one Preservative fol. 23. If you must not use your Reason and private judgment then you must not by any Reasons be persuaded to condemn the use of Reason Answ f. 5. I never heard so much and so little of Reason All he says might with equal weight be said by a sick Man who dissuaded from choosing his own Remedies and desired to send for a skilful Doctor should answer ' T is impossible by Reason to persuade me not to use my Reason in governing my self by Reason as my own Reason teaches me which would be to Condemn Reason and yet be guided by your Reason or the Doctor 's Reason Such a Discourse would prove the Sick party at least somewhat light-headed What 't is a Symptom of in Dr. Sherlock I will not be positive Defence f. 11. Is this Sick Man persuaded to renounce his Reason or rather is it not that he should submit his judgment not renounce his Reason in that case to that Person whom he hath all the reason in the world to believe hath better knowledge and understanding of those things which are to be used for his recovery than himself And all this while methinks he is governed by Reason though he doth not think fit to trust his own skill But this bears no comparison Religion is or ought to be the Concern of all Answer The Footman prevaricates here or is ashamed of his Master 's gross Sophistry and will not stand by it 'T is Dr. Sherlock who pretends that a Catholic by following an infallible Guide renounces his Reason I contend that all the while he is governed by Reason and chiefly because that in a matter of that Concern he thinks not fit to trust his own skill which God hath as often declared to be too weak in any private person as he hath declared he would give to all such Pastors and Teachers as should guide them and Commanded each to repair to them to be guided by them But Religion is or ought to be the Concern of all a wise Observation So is or ought to be each ones health and the preservation of his life as therefore each one ought to advise with a good Doctor concerning his Health a good Lawyer for the preservation of his Fortune so and much more with a good Guide and since it can be had an infallible one for the securing of his Souls eternal happiness the Practice of Religion is the duty of all but the teaching it of those Doctors whom God hath appointed to that end as St. Paul teaches us Eph. 4. is not this Sir a most evident truth Preservative f. 25. Thou shalt Worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve is such a plain and express Scripture that no reason can justifie the Worship of another Being Answ f. 6. A rare Consequence to Infer a Negative for an Affirmative Antecedent that bears no opposition with it 'T is like this a Subject must

Books That God commands it That each one is to judge finally for himself I offer the following Observations on these Texts to your second thoughts With reason St. Paul commands each Christian to try all Omnia probate quod bonum est tenete 1 Thes 5. Nolite omni Spiritui credere sed probate Spiritus si ex Deo sunt 1 Joan. 4. Quoniam multi Pseudo-Prophetae exierunt in Mundum things and to retain what is good And St. John in plainer terms Not to credit every Spirit but to try the Spirits if they be of God for as St. John observes in that very place many false Prophets have appeared in the World And since ' t is necessary that Heresies arise there will ever be many such the Ministers of Satan as St. Paul minds us 2 Cor. 11. 15. transfiguring themselves like unto the Ministers of Justice We ought not then to believe each Man that pretends to the pure Word of the Lord to the Spirit of the Lord. The Question is How we ought to try these different Spirits Each Man says Dr. Sherlock is to read all Heretical as well as Orthodox Books to hear all False Prophets as well as the Teachers of Truth Each ignorant Tradesman Husbandman Day-Laborer having read the Bible heard and read what the Dissenting Divines can say is to Decide as Sovereign Judge without Appeal Alii Prophetia alii discretio Spirituum 1 Cor. 12. 20. All are to choose thus their Religion Not so says St. Paul On some only is bestowed the Gift of Interpreting on some only the Gift of discerning Spirits A necessary Caution for as St. Cyprian observes Hence arise all Heresies that People Hinc Haereses ortae quod unus in Ecclesia Dei ad tempus Sacerdos ad tempus Judex vice Christi non cogitatur l. 1. c. 3. cont Haer. De Ecclesia in Academiae porticum descendunt sensui communi sed suo non Ecclesiae se sistunt Contr. Hermog Nil laborant nisi non invenire quod credunt l. 2. c. 2. de Gen. con Man. Semper discunt numquam ad scientiam veritatis perveniunt 2 Tim. 3. Visum est Spiritui Sancto nobis Act. 15. do not consider that there is one Priest in the Church of God for the time one Judge in lieu of Christ but challenge each of them the Prerogative of Judging for themselves Heretics says Tertullian abandon the Church repair to Schools of Philosophy or Natural Discourse and the Judgment of their Reason appeal to Common Sense but to their own not to that of the Church They profess in their Creed to believe the Catholic Church but as St. Augustin said of the Manicheans All they endeavor is not to sind what they believe and having left the School of Christ and those Teachers he had appointed them they make good by their continual Debates about Religion without any fixure on a certain and unwavering Faith without any secure Principles to build on that Character which S. Paul gives of all Heretics They are ever seeking ever learning and never attain the science of truth What is their Duty then but to seek out those to whom the infallible Direction of the Holy Ghost is promised by Christ our Lord and accordingly given so that they have Authority to resolve all Doubts with a The Holy Ghost declares this and we declare it That no other Method can bring us to a steddy and unwavering Faith. St. Paul did acknowledge to the Ephesians when having warned them To be careful to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace he Ephes 4. 3 11. declares that God gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and other Pastors and Doctors to the consummation of the Saints unto the work of the Ministry unto the edifying of the Body of Christ and that not for some Age or Ages only but until we meet all unto the unity of Faith and Knowledge of the Son of God into a perfect Man into the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ that is to the last day of the General Resurrection this Method of standing to the Decisions of such lawful Pastors being necessary That we be not children wavering and carried about with every wind of Doctrin in the wickedness of Men in craftiness to the circumvention of Error That this is the Sense of the two Texts cited in opposition to it is most evident from the very places whence they are taken for St. John having advised Christians to try the Spirits gives this standing Rule and Method for all Ages He that knows God by a true Faith hears Vs he that is not of Qui novit Deum audit nos qui non est ex Deo non audit nos in hoc cognoscimus Spiritum veritatis spiritum erroris 1 Jo. 4. 6. God hears us not By this Mark you shall discern the Spirit of truth from the spirit of error Behold St. John condemning Dr. Sherlock who will have each Man Judge for himself of the Doctrin whereas St. John declares we must try the Spirits only by this Mark That they have the Spirit of God who hear with Submission their lawful Pastors whereas those who Judge for themselves without that Deference are certainly possessed with the Spirit of Error 'T is also evident that by VS he means all lawful Pastors and not the Apostles only for they were all dead when he writ that Epistle Could any Text be a fuller and more pressing Evidence for me or assure us more positively that an unerring Spirit guides the Pastors and Teachers in the Church of God and that whoever will not fall into Error must submit by an Implicit Faith to that Churches Authority and embrace the Doctrins which she teaches by her Prelates The other Text so unhappy these Men are in their choice is as full and plain to the same effect for St. Paul having first warned the Thessalonians in the foregoing Verse not to despise the Gift of Prophecy or Interpretation given to the Teachers of the Church for the Instruction of others he bids them by this Text not to receive all sorts of Interpreters but such only as had received from the Holy Ghost the Gift of Prophesying and were Commissioned by a lawful Authority to Preach But so far he was from advising them to converse with or read the Books of those that were Aliens and out of the Church that he had warned before the Ephesians with caution to converse with such But let us In sapientia ambulate cum iis qui foris sunt Eph. 4. 5. Si quis Evangelizaverit praeterquam id quod accepistis anathema Gal. 1. Irreformabilis fides observe the several Marks given by the Apostles and by Christ whereby to distinguish those who are to be admitted of from those who ought to be rejected St. Paul gives the Galatians this Rule Whoever Preaches beside what you have received be he accursed that

infallible Person must know what he knows as it truly is but needs not see how or why it can be so Preservat f. 82. 'T is their common Argument That there is a great variety among Protestants and that they condemn one another with equal confidence and assurance Answer 'T is one of your usual Artifices to leave out always the pressing part of our Arguments you should have added Tho' they use the same Rule of Faith and apply it by the same Method Thus proposed 't is an unanswerable Argument against your Rule of Faith and evidently proves it uncertain Defence f. 19 20. Here the honest Footman sends me for an Answer to Dr. Stillingfleet and bids me try my Skill upon him Thus he delivers the Answer given to J. S. first Letter and applied to the present Case 't is divided into five Propositions which to avoid repeating I 'll set down with the following Answer Answer First Arithmetick says Dr. Stillingfleet prescribes a certain way by Addition and Substraction to find out any Sum. 'T is granted Secondly Therefore it must be such that they who take it shall arrive by it at the exact Sum. That 's true also Thirdly But two Men who have made use of the same way differ at least a Hundred in casting up the Sum. This is impossible if they both really made use of that way as the words of Dr. Stillingfleet express But 't is very possible if the meaning be one of them doth not know the Rules of Arithmetick but only thinks he knows them or both know well the Rule but one blundered and set down one Figure for another Fourthly Therefore they who take only that way cannot by it arrive at the certain Sum. This is evidently false and the contrary true to wit Therefore they who take precisely that way and not another for it erring in the Theory or the Practice cannot but arrive by it at the certain Sum. But this following Conclusion might have been drawn from the Third Proposition taken in its Second most improper Sense which Dr. Stillingfleet gives to it Therefore those who err in the Knowledge or miss in the Application of the Rule of Arithmetick tho' they believe never so much in their own Judgment that they know and use the Rule right tho' they have used their best Endeavors tho' they firmly believe they have cast the Sum right yet certainly they have missed and are in the wrong This is the Conclusion which the Dean of Pauls should have drawn and then he might have concluded Still the Rule is certain to those who use it right But is this the Reverend Dr. Stillingfleet's full Answer and that in Dr. Sherlock's Case Stupidity it self would not own it T is an evident Demonstration against Dr. Sherlock's Position and Dr. Stillingfleet's Tenet It proves evidently that altho' Scripture be as infallible a Truth and thereby a Rule of Truth for from Truth only Truth can follow as any Rule of Arithmetick Ex vero non nisi verum yet as in one Case if two casting up an Account by the same pretended Rule differ in the total Sum this following Principle would not only be false but also after such a trial most absurd and sensless Every one is bound in reason to believe the Account he hath cast up to be right if he hath a Book of Arithmetick by him hath read it believes he understands it and hath used his best Endeavors to follow it So is this like Principle which Dr. Sherlock and all his Party stand for If two Men have the Bible read it endeavor to understand it and believing they do draw from the same Scriptures two different Conclusions two opposite Articles of Faith both are bound to stand to their private Judgment and to believe themselves in the right tho' all the World should accuse one or both of them in lieu of the true pretended Rule to have used a false one But let us suppose farther that an eminent Master of Arithmetick should shew to one of these Men where he erred against the true Rule of that Science where he misplaced a cypher otherwise than the Rule directs that this Man in lieu of submitting should appeal to his Book of Arithmetick by the which also the other teaches and the Dispute should be carried on by the one saying the Book teaches and directs thus whilst the other as sturdily pretended it teaches and directs otherwise In this Case were it a reasonable Principle Both must stand to their private Judgment in Interpreting of the Book and well they may for the Rule is certain which both follow Never did Man give a fairer and easier Victory to an Adversary than Dr. Stillingfleet doth to his by this Simile The dullest School-Boy will easily discern the Dean of Paul's patent Parallogism whereby he compares the written Word of God to the Rule it self of Arithmetick whereas the natural and only true Comparison is of the Book or Letter of Scripture with the Book of Arthmetick the true Sense of Scripture with the Rule of Arithmetick A Right-Line-Rule and a Square are the Rule of a Carpenter suppose a Carpenter had a bent and crooked Rule and that what he calls his Square opened at an acute or obtuse Angle this Man working by these would certainly make his Work wrong I ask you now where the Fault would be Certainly in his Rule in his supposed Square and Rule But is not a Carpenter's Rule exact Yes a Carpenter's but not this Carpenter's the Rule he pretends to follow is most Just the Rule which he actually follows is most false and erroneous And if many Carpenters pretending to work by a Right-Line and Square applying them the same way did all differ in the Irregularity of their Work it would be evident they had a false Rule for that 's ones Rule not that he pretends to have but what he actually works by Now to apply this to our Case The Word of God is not the Letter but the true Sense of the Bible for the knowledge of Scripture as St. Hierom observes consists not Scripturae non in legendo sed intelligendo consistant in the Reading but the Vnderstanding of it The Rule of Faith then is the Sense of the Letter of Scripture The pretended Rule is the true Sense of Scripture The real Rule that Christians use is that Sense of the Letter of Scripture by which they square their Faith for that is any ones real Rule by which he in reality acts The true Sense of Scripture is a certain Rule The Sense given to the Letter of Scripture is a most uncertain and frequently a wrong Rule The Rule Protestants pretend unto is a certain infallible Rule for Truth never misguides But their Rule of Faith is the Sense which each Man 's private Judgment gives to the Letter of Scripture for they square their Faith by it believe according to the same The Letter of Scripture is their Material Rule

might Pray the more for us the Christians as St. Gregory Nyssen observes calling on the Martyr as on God's Tract 8. in Joa Serm. 27. de verb. Dom. l. 22. c. 10. de Civ In S. Thcod Mar. Minister who being Invocated by Men is able to Impetrate for them what Favors he pleases That Christ by refusing himself all Worship to God's Enemy the Devil teaches Vs to pay none at all to God's Saints and Angels is an Inference that no one but Dr. Sherlock was ever capable to make That to bring or invite Saints to the Feet of God's Throne to joyn their Prayers to ours is to set them in the Throne of God is a Position that seems to be supported in spite of all Sense and Reason The Catholics by Petitioning the Saints to Pray to God for them do most perfectly worship God and that by as immediate a Prayer as the Three Children in the Furnace of Dan. 3. Babylon as David in his 148. Psalm and others where he invites all Creatures to Praise God and whatever we admire in them being the Graces and Glory of God and the Worship which they pay him as directly leads to God as any other Prayer the best sort whereof is Thanksgiving or a Memorial of the Blessings we have received our selves from God. Besides since we are sure that they faithfully return to God as the Author of all that is praise-worthy in them whatever Praises they receive from us we honor and worship God more by Praying thus to them than he that should have held a Book of Prayers to St. Peter or St. Paul on Earth to read their Seraphical Prayers in The Catholic Believes there is but one God and one Mediator Jac. 4 between God and Men the Man Christ Jesus as he believes Jac. 5. there is one Lawgiver and one Judge and one Redeemer yet he believes that he who converts his Brother saves his Soul tho' Christ be the only Saviour because all other Means to Salvation have their efficacy from him Christ is the only Mediator by Nature and his essential Office by his own Merits only challenging in Justice to be heard having given himself a full Redemption so that he is as St. Augustin observes the Priest In Psalm 64. who being now entred into the vail alone there of them who have been partakers of flesh doth make intercession for us yet as the same Saint says without doubt the Martyrs intercede for us 'T is true we are bidden to come with confidence to the throne In Psalm 8● and 8● of glory that is with security that a full Ransom is paid for us of more than sufficient value to obtain whatever we ask but as the beloved Disciple observes that full confidence that they shall be heard is only for those whose Heart doth not check 1 Joan. 3. them with the consciousness of their Sins and we reach not the Pharisaical Pride of those who rank themselves with the Innocents We own Christ to be the Gate the Way he in whose Name we must ask and we say with St. Augustin That In Psalm 108 Prayer which is not made in the Name of Christ Mediator between God and Man not only doth not blot out sin but is it self a sin We are certain that whoever asks as he should in the Name of Christ will obtain what he asks and therefore finding our Prayers so often not to be heard and knowing that the very Prayer of a Sinner is odious to God whilst his Sins crie louder we put that adorable Name in the Mouth of Saints not by choosing them for our Mediators since their Prayers are of no other efficacy or value but thro' the Passion of Christ but for our Fellow-Intercessors as the Apostles themselves when on Earth asked the Prayers of others tho' absent by their Letters and we as much apply the Mediation of Christ to us by the Prayers of our Fellow-Members of his Mystical Body as we do by Alms-deeds and other pious Works which is no more a derogation to Christ than that St. Peter should work even greater Miracles than he himself because he wrought them in his Name and we honor God as much as those who laid their sick Friends where St. Peter's Shadow as he pass'd might cover them in lieu of calling immediately upon Christ whose Devotion was approved by Miracles We pay no other Worship to Images than the Jews by the Holy Ghost's Commands paid to the Ark or Mercy-seat or to the Cherubins for whatever Dr. Sherlock says to the contrary the same Worship may be paid to God's Throne as to his Footstool the Images are not the Object of our Worship but a Means to convey it to its proper Object which they represent We adore God every where and particularly where his Representative as a Crucisix is of Christ by a livelier Representation renders him more present to our Faith and we direct no other way our Worship towards a Crucifix than we do towards Heaven when we adore God there We adore but one substantial Image of God Christ Jesus but Pictures and Material Representations no more than our own Thoughts when in Contemplation we adore God tho' we have a singular Veneration for them as we have for the Bible proportion'd to that Civil Respect which we pay to the Images or Statues of our Kings If our worship of Creatures be Idolatry all the first Christians were great Idolaters who shewed so much Respect and Love to St. Paul and the other Apostles and confided so much on their Prayers which they asked with Tears for we own and practise no other sort of Creature-worship That Catholics have every where and even in this last Age destroyed all Idols and converted Nations from Idolatry is a certain Truth and therefore 't is as evident a Calumny that they have only changed the Names of Idols The Heathen Philosophers never pretended that their Prayers to Idols were only to ask the Prayers of Angels and Daemons not the least footstep of this appears in any one of them and the Silver-Smith Demetrius who accused St. Paul for teaching Act. 19. 26. Quoniam non sunt dii qui manibus fiunt that those were not Gods which were the work of mens hands sufficiently teaches us what Notion was generally received of Idols I have seen some part of the Catholic World as France the Low-Countries some Parts of Italy and Germany it hath been my great Employ to instruct the weakest Age and dullest People yet I profess I never met with any one that was in the least danger to take a Picture or Statue for a God or for a Saint that heard him And the Inquisitions against whose Severity Protestants so often declaim tho' they have often detected those who turned Jews a Persuasion most opposite to Image-Worship yet never discovered any one who by the use of Image or Statue was fallen into Idolatry We know God can hear us immediately and