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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36956	A vindication of Saint Ignatius (founder of the Society of Jesus) from phanaticism ; and of the Jesuites, from the calumnies laid to their charge in a late book, entitul'd, The enthusiasm of the Church of Rome by William Darrel ...	Darrell, William, 1651-1721.	1688 (1688)	Wing D270; ESTC R8705	31,024	53

Invective against Popery larded with Two or Three pretty Stories either forg'd by the Doctor or scrap'd-up on an Hear-say are efficacious Engins to work the Populace out of their Wits and set them all a-gog against Popery For the Grave Divines require Belief to the greatest Crimes against Papists on the slightest Grounds and yet forbid all Assent to Popish Miracles though backt with the greatest Authority As for Example In the Art of Missionaries Discover'd the Author presents his Reader with one Father Leech who told Mr. Gee That if any but hear Mass and after hearing be sprinkled with Holy Water and kiss the Priest's Garment he could not commit that Day any Mortal Sin. Here is a pretty Story you see affirm'd by Mr. Gee yet it must be believ'd upon his Infallible Authority Although in my Conscience I think it ten times more improbable That a Catholick Priest in his Wits should vent a Doctrine so notoriously false than that the Saints of our Church should by GOD's Assistance work Miracles Again The Jesuites give their General an Account of all Occurrences of State in those Provinces and Kingdoms whereof they are the Respective Assistants To which End they have Correspondents in the Principal Cities of all Kingdoms who sending all their Informations to the General they balance the Interests of every Prince and then resolve That the Affairs of such a Prince shall be promoted the Design of Another oppos'd c. Now that Jesuites should have Kingdoms thus in a String is no less incredible in it self than that Ignatius should work strange Cures and yet That must be swallow'd down by the greedy Reader and This rejected although the Latter be attested by Credible Witnesses and the Former rely on the Authority of a Villain who Compos'd a Book against the Jesuites of the same Stamp with the Salamanca-Narrative Thirdly In the Preface after a late Challenge to Mr. Poulton as full of Rhodomontado's as the Sultan of Constantinople sent the Emperour not doubting but such blustering Language would strike Mr. Poulton dumb I do not says the Author much expect an Answer to this Challenge for those Men who could lie near Twenty Years under such a Charge as Dr. Du Moulin laid against Them and dar'd Them to call him to an Account for the Murder of King Charles the First without ever venturing to clear Themselves may easily bear This. Here the Mobile is desir'd to believe as firmly as any Part of the Bible That the Jesuites Murder'd the King That Cromwel was a rank Jesuite and the Parliament a Pack of the same Society Now I am of Opinion That any Honest Man before he can swallow down this Article must renounce all Sense as much as any Papist does to believe Transubstantiation Yet down it must under Pain at least of passing for a Papist in Masquerade Read Bouhours from one End to the other and then tell me Whether any Miracles related of St. Ignatius be not twenty Degrees more Credible And therefore if this Calumny must gain Credit Why They must deserve none For my part if we may guess at the Future by the Past Ten Years will turn the Convocation of Lambeth into a White-Horse-Consultation and those Reverend Fathers of the Church of England who were so Zealous as to tell His Majesty They thought His Proceeding to be Illegal will be Metamorphos'd into Priests and Jesuites Such a Change is easily wrought One Minister with an Ounce of Brass on his Face and a well-hung Tongue in his Mouth will carry the Metamorphose a great way and then One I was told so concludes the Business Fourthly He tells his Readers p. 42. That besides Vniversities and Divines who teach the Lawfulness of Calumnies and false Reports we find it among other Rules of the Jesuites That they should be sure to put this Doctrine in Practice even against those of their own Communion the Antient Orders of the Roman Church The Rule is Let their Faults be diligently noted and they represented as dangerous to the Publick Peace This is told us by a Gentleman who challenges all the World to shew in his whole Book one false Quotation Yet I have read the Jesuites Rules more than once from one End to the other and protest before GOD and Man there is not to be found one Tittle of this So that let the Gentleman make Ten Thousand Protestations of his Sincerity more than he has I will rather believe St. Ignatius wrought Miracles than that This is true Indeed he cites Instructio Secret. c. but they are no more our Rules than His. They were Compos'd by a Villain who was resolv'd to make Jesuites appear as black as Himself and are espous'd by a Man of the same Temper If they really were found in a College as is pretended make it out and that They are our Rules If not under favour you are guilty of those very Crimes you ascribe to the Jesuites For 't is in my Opinion no less a Crime to fling a Slander made by Another on our Neighbour than to forge One. Fifthly To demonstrate the Slandering Vein of Papists he brings p. 61. a fresh and very material Instance viz. No longer since than the Winter 1685. a Report went current through all the Countries in England where there are many Romanists That Dr. Burnet was at Rome become a Papist and That great Preferments were bestow'd upon him 'T is a Calumny without doubt not to be born that a Person so Famous for Loyalty as that Reverend Divine should be snatch'd against his Will from that Church which had taught him Obedience to Higher Powers in so Superlative a manner that they thought it convenient to recompence it with Outlawry Wherefore Sir if Catholicks were so Credulous on the Receipt of Foreign Letters as to believe it I make an Apology for their Mistake although I am apter to believe that when that Gentleman began to kick against the Government and to shew some Ferguson-Tricks the ProtestantGentry of those Counties you mention thought it convenient to heave him out of Their Communion into Ours to the end that the next Age might bind-up his Life among Those of the Popish Rebels My Conjecture stands on better ground than Yours or than any of your Friends Exceptions against the Miracles of St. Ignatius Seeing now we are fallen on the Topick of Tale-telling I cannot omit to put my Story in among the rest that the World may see how easily Protestants slip into the Vice of Credulity as well as Obstinacy when the Fancy takes them When the Happy News of Her Majesty's being with Child was spread abroad and all Loyal Subjects testify'd their Interior Joy by outward Acclamations some incredulous Persons not convinc'd by the Decree of the Privy Council for a Thanksgiving-Day blaz'd abroad That it was a Sham And yet this was so prevalent with some that they would not discredit it till Her Majesty Lay-in To these People 't is a Madness to obtrude

Miracles for What Miracle of CHRIST can be better attested than Her Majesty's being with Child Yet at the same time as if they had made a Vow never to act like Men they would scarce perswade themselves the Protestant-Duke was Dead Which gave occasion for these Two Verses In the Whigg's Creed Two Articles are read The Queen is not with Child nor Monmouth Dead Nay one Line from a Pulpit would have so far prevail'd on them as to have oblig'd many to take Horse to meet his Grace at Taunton Sixthly He desires the Reader p. 21. to believe that he has not imitated the Scavenger in stopping no where but at a Dunghil For I have says he quoted none but allow'd and approv'd Authors c. And as for what I have cited out of Protestant Books let them invalidate their Testimony if they can I will engage for the Truth of my Quotations and know of no Objections against any Author I have cited which are of any Force You are Sir either in some Ecstatick Transport or else endow'd with that great Virtue Ignorance beyond Expression which your Friend so highly commends in St. Ignatius Were not the Provincial Letters burnt by the publick Hang-man in France Did not La Pratique Morale run the same Fate in the Year 1669 And is not this as real and material an Objection against the Validity and Sufficiency of those Libels as Mr. Oats's yearly Pillory against the Authority of His and his Brethrens Narratives When you propose in your Second Part as you promise as convincing Reasons against Miracles as I have done against the Credit of these Two Authors I will come over to You. Again Your Arcana Societatis Jesu Instructiones Secretae are Chips of the same Block that is Pieces forg'd with Impudence and cited with a daring Confidence In a word They are of as great Credit and Reputation as Those who live by the Basket and receive Knight-hood from the Pillory Sir Had it been my Fortune to have been in London some Years ago I would not have stood in your Way I see by the Authority you give Varlets in Print how you esteem'd them in Westminster-Hall and Old-Baily Nay I fear that had the Balance stood equal you might have dropt in a single Oath to raise a Jesuite's Neck into an Halter Would Time permit me I could give as good an Account of some others of your Authorities as I have of These and by Consequence of your Book in which I find a Thousand more Impostures than I am sure can be found in Saint Ignatius's Life Is not this Proceeding the Effect of a Frenzy past the Vertue of Heblebore Shall the profess'd Enemies of our Religion and Order by the Omnipotent Power of a Defaming Faction be turn'd into Vnbyass'd Persons Substantial Witnesses c And shall their bare Words without any Shadow of Proof serve for Evidence against Us of all those Calumnies which took their Being from Malice and Prejudice and have no Reality but in the Imagination of Those whom confident Gown-Men malitiously impose on But when we recount any thing in Confirmation of our Church although back'd with irrefragable Witnesses presently it must be slighted as if all the Moral Honesty in the World was confin'd to the narrow Compass of this Island or as if the Church of England had engross'd all Truth to its self And now 't is high time to leave my Author and Reader too Only I must desire the Latter to turn to E. W. Printed at Antwerp in the Year 1676. and to the Second Letter by A. B. in the Year 1672. In the First you will find Dr. Stillingfleet's Exceptions against Miracles in the Second against St. Ignatius and the Jesuites fully Answer'd For I conceive the Answer to the Dean is a full Reply to my Author he having nothing material but an higher-flown Impudence which is not borrow'd from the Doctor And now Dear Author before we part I admonish you friendly to change your Method if you intend to advance your Church A Burlesque is only to convince Fools Wise Men are led by Reason of which you have been over-sparing in your Book So that if you intend to make any Progress increase This and diminish That And if you be over-confident that you have so much solid Reason as to convince any one of the Truth of your Religion and the Corruption of Ours be pleas'd to bring your Reason to the Test I promise you here on the Word of a Gentleman That I will Meet you Where and with Whom you please But it shall be upon this Condition That you promise to treat me more civilly than the Divines of St. Martins did some time ago a Priest who was call'd to a Sick Person I dare not venture to engage with Divines who have for Seconds a Populace for who knows but They may strengthen the Doctor 's Arguments with Blows and foul their Hands to bespatter Me as their Leaders have the Press to Asperse my Religion Bring then with You such a Company as hath heard of such a Thing as Civility and can distinguish solid Reason from loud Clamours concluding Syllogisms from patch'd-up Sophisms On these Conditions I pass my Word for my Appearance And that You may not miss of my Lodgings your Letter shall find Me at the Schools in the Savoy Where I am SIR YOURS William Darrel FINIS ERRATA PAge 1. Line 11. for Merirs read Merits p. 3. l. 16. for Tittle read Title p. 7. l. 32. for this read things p. 22. l. 8. for Lib. 2. read Lib. 1. p. 31. l. 25. for stumple read stumble p. 39. l. 10. for by A. B. read so A. B.