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
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
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
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
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
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