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our Church or in defence of their own let them come into the open Field from whenâ—â— they have of late so wisely withdrawn themselveâ— finding so little success in it Thus he speaâ—â— in his Preface threatning if I understanâ—â—â—â— him right another Knocker as stout a oâ—â—â— as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
Fae'ix in Gallias Germanias invexerit By this testimony it appears that Felix over and above his capital errour about Christ our Lords adoption was an iconomachus too or adversary of images and suffered at Frankford for both his errours which is not unlikely by the testimony of Platina â—nd Paulus Emilius For Platina in the life of Pope Adrian Biennio post saith he Theophylactus Stephanus Episcopi insignes Adriani nomine Francorum Germanorum Synodum habuerunt in qua Synodus quam septimam Graeci appellabant haeresis Feliciana de tollendis imaginibus abrogata est And P. Emilius in his second book de gestis Francorum speaking of that Councill of Frankford Et imaginibus saith he suns honor restitutus est The like may be proved out of Blondus Sabellicus and other historians So that all these things rightly considered and put together will sufficiently convince his relation of the Frankford Councill to be fictitious and groundiess If the Councill were assembled by the Agreement of the Pope and Emperour then not of the Emperour against the Pope If to suppress Elipand Claudius and Felix then not the Nicen Prelates If under the same Pope and Presidents which presided lately in Nice then not against any thing determined and concluded in Nice If upon the motive of Elipands errour against our Lords filiation then was not an image the principal occasion of it If Felix were there condemned for his opposition to images then were not images condemned If Charles the great one of the devoutest to the Roman Church that ever raigned so much swaied in that Councill then would he not suffer the Roman Church to be there affronted and censured If an upright Catholick he would not in spiritual affairs gainsay the Prince of Prelates who had so lately set his hand and seale to Nicen defiinitions In a word if Charles the Great called that Council at Frankford as the Doctor affirms then without all doubt was that ratified there which was established at Nice a little before For Charles was as much a Roman Catholick as either Stephen and Theophilact or the Pope himself and knew as well as any man what obedience is due to the definitions of a Council rightly consummated and confirmed as that of Nice was Binius the great Collector of the Councils proves at large that all this story of the Carolin books and Frankford Synod assembled against that of Nice is a groundless fiction And so do Alanus Surius Vasquez and several other Doctors And they are all amazed whence the rumour should arise and by whom and in what age or time But I cannot wonder much at it since I heard lately of a French Gentleman who affirms and shows in a Book of his that the English never conquered France nor ever gave them any one overthrow in battle And when he was told by a neighbour of this his notorious falshood O quoth he my book two hundred years hence may pass for an authority as good as any that speak otherwise And so I think there may possibly be such impious men who out of their present malice may furnish out a lie to infect posterity in after times But he must be an unconscionable wicked man who can do such a deed § 12. Primitive Christians never used any images as the learned of the Church of Rome acknowledge He had done well to let us knâ—w who are these leâ—rned of the Church of Rome But he will not do us that favour And â—e must still take his word for the judgment of the learned sort always Nay we must belâ—eve too that he is ever on the learned sorts side It is indeed unlikely that figures of those holy persons who first spread our Christianity in the world and made it good both by their lives and death should be frequent in primâ—tive times First because those same figures although they be honourable memories both of their persons and pieties unto whose zeal and goodness we are so much indebted yet are they not so necessarily requisite unto any such perpose but that the Church can be without them Secondly because primitive Christians had not amongst them any such plenty of Artists as we have now a days to make them Thirdly because Pagans would have mis-interpreted the end and meaning of such figures as this our Doctor does in the midst of day-light But that in those primitive times there was never any Christian so ill affected towards those pious representations as is Mr. Still appears sufficiently by the testimony of those ancient Doctors who mention incidentally the customs so those primitive times especially about the figure of the Cross which they made continually on theâ—r fore-head and breasts as a preservative against evil and kept it all over their houses particularly in their Bed-chambers and closets either framed in wood or stone or painted in colours There be notwithstanding the deluge of time which swallows up all things some monuments yet left among us of the respect which those Christians then bore both to the reliques and figures of their Saints The very chair of St. James the Apostle and first Bishop of Jerusalem Eusebius in the seventh book of his history attests that it was had in great esteem and veneration in all times even to his own days Accordingly S. Clement in his sixâ—h book of apostolical constitutions gives this general testimony of that kind of piety in those primitive Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The very relicks saith he of Saints now living with God are not without their veneration Some remainds there be also of an apostolical Council at Antioch gathered out of S. Pamphilus and Origen wherein caution is given both against the Jews malice and Gentâ—le idols by opposing the images of Jesus and his holy foâ—lowers against them both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignatiâ—s also that worthy apostolical Prelate the third from St. Peter the Apostle in the chair at Antioch thus signally speaks of the sign of the cross in his epistle to Philadelphia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Prince of this world saith he rejoices when any one denies the Cross for he knows the confession of the cross to be his own ruin this is the Standard against his power which so often as he either sees or hears it spoken of he shakes and trembles thus speaks that glorious Prelate The above named Eusebius testifies also in the same book of his history that he saw even in his time the brazen Statue of our Lord Jesus which was set up in Paneada in Palestin unto his honour by the woman cured by him of the blood flix so notable for miracles that they were spoke of all the world over This statue oâ— our Lord when Julian the apostate caused it to be thrown down and his own to be set up in place thereof a strange sodain fire from heaven consumed the statue of Julian as Zozomenus in his fist book witnesses
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