pass for real Sanctity But there are other Actions of Enthusiasts so extravagantly absurd and ridiculous that they can be ascribed to no other cause than the unaccountable Phrensies of a disturbed Brain to whose irregular Motions the Enthusiast yielding a blind obedience is betrayed to the commission of all those Follies and Absurdities which an heated Imagination can invent or suggest These above all other Actions give the greatest scandal to the unthinking part of Mankind as not to be palliated with any pretence of Piety and do infinite prejudice to the common Cause of Christianity while unlearned Persons taking their measures of it from the Actions of reputed Saints accuse it of Folly and Superstition and believe it rather to have been designed for the Sport than the Salvation of Mankind St. Philip Neri often caused his Disciples and among them the Great Baronius to do many Ridiculous Actions and walk the Streets in Antick Habits on purpose that they might be derided St. Francis as soon as he was converted being drunk with the Spirit putting off his Breeches and all his Cloaths before a Multitude said to his Father Hitherto I have called you Father here on Earth but now I may securely say Our Father which art in Heaven Passing into Hospitals he kisseth the Hands and Mouths of Lepers waits upon them washeth their Feet kisseth their Ulcers and sucks out the filth of them Meeting a company of Beggars he tears and cuts his Cloaths in pieces to distribute them to them not being able to stay till he could pull them off Travelling in the Road he sings Psalms all along with a loud voice and whensoever the Spirit moves him kneels down in the Streets or dirt to pray Imagining himself commanded by God to repair his decayed House he serves the Masons gratis in repairing of Churches Retiring alone into the Woods he fills them with sighs and groans and bedews them with tears beats his Breast with his fist and continually talks to God as he were present with him Whensoever he hears the name of Christ he licks his lips as if he felt some sweetness in the sound He gives the title of Brother or Sister to the meanest Beasts even Worms and Flies and thinks it meritorious to redeem Lambs from slaughter A Lamb being presented to him he daily reads lessons of Instruction to it and enjoins to it great attention in praising God. The Lamb in a little while becomes illuminated kneels reverently in time of Divine Service bleats before the Altar of the Blessed Virgin in an humble posture and to the eternal conviction of all Hereticks kneels down at the elevation of the Host. Finding a flock of Birds or Grashoppers he preacheth to them then sets a Psalm and invites them to joyn with him in praising God. On Christmas Eve he gets a company of Asses and Oxen into a Stable reads Mass at the Manger and makes a Sermon to them He feareth to touch Lights Lamps or Candles because he would not defile them with his hands Walks gingerly upon the stones in honour of him who was called Stone Gathers the small Worms out of the way that they may not be trod on by Passengers and feareth even to kill the Vermin of his Body Saint Macarius had done penance by going naked six months in the Desert and suffering hmself to be stung of Flies for having killed a Flea Not only Animals but the very Elements did St. Francis imagine to be endued with understanding For being in a grievous sickness necessitated to admit a Cauterism he thus bespeaks the Fire My Brother Fire God hath created thee beyond all other things handsome and vertuous and fair and useful Be thou kind and courteous to me in this moment Now see the force of an eloquent Complement the Fire is applied but doth not burn him Being one day full of the Spirit he calls together the People of Assisium enters into the great Church causeth a Rope to be fastned to his Neck and commands himself to be drawn naked in the sight of all to a Stone on which Malefactors were wont to be placed before their Execution Getting upon this he preacheth naked to the People in a cold Season confesseth himself to be a very great Sinner a carnal Man and a Glutton This Phrenzy could not be ended but with his Life in the last period of which he commands himself to be carried into the Church and to be there laid naked upon the ground that he might expire in the sight of all the People and boast before them that he left the World as naked as he entred it disburdened of all Possessions Those many ridiculous Actions which I have already related of Ignatius might justly supersede any farther labour yet at least to equal the Merits of St. Francis I will produce some few Instances of a no less extravagant Folly. In his retirement at Manreze feeling some temptations of Vain-glory he enters into an Hospital and applies himself to serve the sick Persons licks their Sores and sucks out the filth of their Ulcers As soon as he was made General of his Order the first thing he did was to serve in the Kitchin in quality of a Scullion where for some while he executed the most vile and sordid Offices Sending for his Companions from France to Venice he instructs them to sing Psalms as they travelled in the Road and when the Spirit moved to kneel down and pray They punctually perform his Instructions travel through Heretical Countries with Beads about their Necks and out of the abundance of their zeal refuse to eat with any Lutheran Minister as fearing some Contagion from him While he studied at Paris he had often in vain employed his Reason to convert a Fornicator who held an unlawful commerce with a Woman living in a Village near the City Ignatius watcheth his walk by a Ponds side in a frosty Morning Perceiving him coming he strips himself and runs into the Water up to the Chin. The Man coming by he calls to him thunders out damnation against him tells him that he there did penance for him and intended by the cold which he voluntarily undertook to temper the ardent heat of his Lust being resolved to continue this practice every day till he should be converted To produce no more examples the constant Flouts and Derisions of the Rabble which for many years after his conversion attended him at his entrance into any Town demonstrate that all his Actions had somewhat ridiculous in them which might excite and deserve the laughter of the Vulgar Certainly Folly may be advanced to a great perfection when it is affected and elaborate and the Enthusiast is ambitious of being ingeniously ridiculous Our Saint thought it a great perfection to be esteemed a Fool and therefore often resolved and earnestly desired to cover himself with horns and in that equipage march through the Streets of
farther I will observe that these indiscreet Actions and Childish Irregularities were the products of latter and degenerate Ages in the Ancient Church unknown to the first four Ages when Christianity flourished in its greatest purity In the three first Ages not the least footstep or shadow of them can be found and in the fourth Age they were very rarely practised and wholly confined to the Desarts of Egypt or Palestine As for the Follies related of St. Antony in his Life ascribed to St. Athanasius and those of other Saints in the Vitae Patrum said to have been writ by St. Hierom all Learned Men are now agreed that the former Work is miserably corrupted the latter wholly spurious After the fourth Age many Childish Impertinencies and trifling Superstitions began to be practised by the Monks and Hermits whose Follies are celebrated and magnified by injudicious Writers of the same Order and time such as Palladius Heraclitus Sulpicius Severus Cassian and Moschus but augmented with a large addition of Fables and absurdity by the latter Legendary Writers of the Church of Rome In the next place it deserveth farther to be considered that in the Ancient Church none but obscure and inconsiderable Persons confined to a Mountain or a Desart who obtained neither authority nor reputation in the Church were guilty of such foul mistakes and irregularities The great and famous Doctors and Fathers of the Church who drew the eyes of the whole World upon their Actions and acquired to themselves an universal veneration cannot be accused of such fatal miscarriages which were so far unworthy of them On the contrary they sharply opposed the misguided Zeal of these ignorant Devotoes censured their imprudent Actions slighted their external shews of apparent Piety and deplored the evil consequences of their irregular Practices What the wisest of the Ancients disowned deserve not to be excused and defended by us And indeed the trifling Devotions and wild Impertinencies of the Monastick Order were the greatest blemish to those latter Ages of Antiquity and laid the foundation of all Corruptions whether of Faith or Manners which infected succeeding Ages Towards the beginning of the fifth Age Eunapius the Heathen Historian could find no more plausible or rational objection against Christianity than the sordid Actions and ridiculous Conduct of the Monks certainly no objection was then more visible or less capable of a refutation But then the Actors of these Follies never obtained that respect and admiration from the publick suffrage of the Ancient Church which Enthusiastick Saints have received from the Church of Rome The former commemorated none in her publick Offices but Martyrs Confessors and famous Persons who had been eminently instrumental in the service of the Church and filled not her Diptychs with Monks and Anchorets The latter hath scarce canonized any other than such as were chiefly eminent for Enthusiasm Lastly to say no more Even the highest Extravagances of these Ancient Bigots come far beneath the Enthusiasm of Ignatius and other admired Saints of the Church of Rome They might perhaps commit many gross absurdities and indecent actions and entertain Childish notions of Religion but never proceeded so far as to pretend to extraordinary Illuminations reception of the Faith by supernatural Revelation and continual Impulse of the Divine Spirit nor took upon them to publish their own Whimsies by preaching to the People without any commission from the Governours of the Church which are the genuine and most essential Characters of Fanaticism If the Miracles related of them be sometimes found to lye open to the same Objections which are opposed by me to those of Ignatius the honour of the Ancient Church suffers no prejudice thereby which far from building her Authority and Reputation on them hath frequently disowned and rejected them as appears among other Arguments from that Passage of the Learned Author of the Opus Imperfectum which I have produced in the following Discourse None will be concerned in the truth of these ancient Monkish Miracles but that Church only which hath proposed them to the People in her publick Offices and Ecclesiastical Legends In representing the Actions of Ignatius I have chiefly made use of the Authority of F. Dominick Bouhours a French Iesuit altho one of the latest Writers of his Life because in publishing the Life of Ignatius of late among us that Author was thought fit to be preferred before all others and his Relation of him translated into our Language However in whatsoever he proposeth he wants not the attestation of more ancient and authentick Writers For he seems to have taken his whole Relation from Orlandinus his History of the Society of Jesus printed at Colen in the Year 1615. with the approbation of Claudius Aquaviva the General I have seldom produced any other Writers of Ignatius his Life but when the first is either wholly silent or giveth a different Relation If I have sometimes inserted Observations from the Life of Apollonius Tyaneus that tendeth as well to illustrate the nature of Enthusiasm in general as to do justice to the common Cause of Christianity against the pretences of an Impostor whom the latter Heathens set up in opposition to our Blessed Saviour To conclude I hope our Adversaries will not pretend that I have misrepresented or falsified the Actions of Ignatius since I have all along to every particular Action so carefully annexed in the Margent the Author who relates it and the place where it may be found The pretence of misrepresentation is the last refuge of a baffled Cause and therefore made use of by our Adversaries as the only remaining expedient upon all occasions particularly by the Author of the Monomachia who not being able to answer the Objections brought by a Friend of mine against the Authorities of his Speculum Ecclesiasticum pretended to overrule the concurrent Testimonies of Labbé Oudin Du Pin and other Romish Criticks because the particular places of their Books to which those Passages related were not adjoined and insinuated a suspicion of some insincerity as if that omission had proceeded from a fear lest the truth of those Citations should be examined What the ignorance or artifice of this Author will not permit him to do at least all judicious Persons will allow that it were both unuseful and impertinent to stuff the Margents with particular mention of the places of such Critical Writers who in giving their Censures upon Ancient Authors proceed either Alphabetically or in order of time and may consequently be immediately recurred to without any difficulty But a lame excuse must serve the turn when the badness of the Cause will admit no better THE ENTHUSIASM OF THE CHURCH of ROME c. SO great and venerable an Idea of God is by nature imprinted in the minds of men so visible and convictive are the Arguments of his Omniscience and Veracity that all Divine Revelations are no sooner proposed than admitted and esteemed to command no less than to deserve our
to sing Mattins see no Apparition but find Pascall transported into an Extasy with the Imagination of it The frequent Splendor and supernatural Brightness of his Face is no better attested Isabella Rosella a credulous Woman fancied she often saw it at Barcelona while standing amidst a croud of People he heard Sermons in the Church altho no other Person present could perceive any such thing In Spain two Women of his Kindred peeping through the Keyhole while he prayed saw his Countenance enflamed as with a Fever for it shined with such a Light that it dazled their Eyes Being once at the point of Death as he expected Extreme Unction his Health was miraculously restored to him Vitelleschi confesseth that this Miracle would never have been known had not his good Hostess by great fortune been in the Chamber with him at that very juncture of time This consideration also defeats the credit of the greatest part of Apollonius his Miracles being known only to his confident Damis with whom being chained in Prison he drew his Leg out of the Chain and shewing it unchained to Damis immediately put it in again by which Miracle he was first convinced that somewhat Divine and more than Human was in Apollonius The Miraculous Splendor of his Face was better attested if we may believe Philostratus for while he was led to the Tribunal of Domitian the whole People of Rome saw and admired it This also ruins the Authority of St. Francis's Miracles the far greater part of which were performed by him after his Death in Apparitions to sick Persons Apparitions which are owing only to the disturbed Imagination of the foolish Votaries first desiring his assistance and then fancying him to be present Such Miracles as these have nothing extraordinary in them and are fitted only to amuse the ignorant part of Mankind who not knowing their natural cause recur to the Divine Power Many Miracles of Ignatius lay open to the same Objection and may be rationally solved without any deep Philosophy All his Apparitions after death and Cures of sick Persons making their application to him and other like Miracles which fill up the far greater part of his Legend are of this nature The former may be ascribed to the whimsies and vapours of a disturbed Brain the latter to the effect of Chance altho even the strength of imagination may not a little concur to the happiness of the effect If among a thousand Persons which implore the assistance of Ignatius in any sickness danger or undertaking one hundred recover escape or obtain their desire a blind Credulity shall ascribe the whole event to the miraculous Power and wonderful Benignity of the Saint altho in all appearance the Invocation of Aesculapius Mahomet or Don Quixot had produced the same effect As for the remaining nine hundred which obtain not the grant of their Petitions their unhappiness shall be ascribed to their want of Faith to the coldness of their Devotion and perhaps to the multiplicity of business wherein the Saint was then engaged Thus Miracles can never be wanting to a Romish Saint when once the People are perswaded to offer up their Petitions to him Many even of the most illustrious Miracles performed by Ignatius in his life-time may be resolved into the same cause and when examined will be found to have nothing worthy admiration in them I will instance but in one the raising of a man from the dead at Barcelona which all the Writers of his Life magnify as a great Miracle The case was this A Man had hung himself in the House where Ignatius lodged Ignatius comes hastily into the Chamber and cuts the Rope The Man revives but had already so far weakned the union of Soul and Body that his life could be continued no longer than while he confessed and commended his Soul to God. Here is nothing extraordinary in all this but only an impertinent Story magnified and exalted into a Miracle in imitation of those frequent Fables of Legends which to aggrandize the Power of Priests represent them saving the Souls of Men by some pretty Artifice performed in a minute without any concurrence of themselves and sometimes even against their wills Thus Pope Gregory by one short Prayer translated the Soul of Trajan the Emperor from Hell to Heaven and St. Dunstan did the same kindness to King Edgar when they least thought of it But St. Patrick did somewhat more majestick when he raised from the dead Glasse a Pagan Giant in Ireland an hundred foot high after he had been dead one hundred years and having baptized him sent him back to his Grave with assurance of Salvation St. Benedict used a more compendious way who when any of his Monks died in a doubtful state as to their future Happiness laid the consecrated Host upon the Breast of the dead Body which immediately opened it self to receive it and then all was safe There are other Miracles ascribed to Ignatius which may be evidently convinced of falsehood and forgery and if this Charge be once proved the credit and authority of all his other Miracles is intirely overthrown It would be highly unreasonable in a Cause of so great moment to admit the testimony of a Witness once convicted of Perjury since all his Miracles are equally founded upon the same Authority and a voluntary Fraud proved in one case will subject the whole Relation to a just suspicion of the like Imposture Thus it is sufficient to oppose to all the Miracles of Apollonius that Damis his Companion from whose sole Authority Philostratus professeth to receive them hath wilfully obtruded an evident Fable upon the World in relating that the Constellation of the Bear cannot be seen in the Red Sea where he remained with Apollonius many months and could not be ignorant of the truth of that matter To this we may add that whereas Apollonius pretended and Philostratus relates of him that by an extraordinary gift of God he understood all Languages and as Porphyry would perswade us even the Language of Beasts and Birds yet when he came into India he was forced to make use of an Interpreter by the confession of the same Historian That the History of Ignatius his Miracles receiveth the same prejudice from the disagreement and contrariety of the Historians I will briefly demonstrate in some few Examples His Conversion is commonly represented to have been begun by a Vision of Saint Peter touching his Wounds and healing them immediately Yet Bouhours confesseth the Cure was not yet performed of many weeks after this supposed Vision and at last so performed that a visible deformity and perpetual lameness remained in his Leg altho Vitelleschi proposeth it as a certain rule of Miracles that they are ever perfect and in nothing deficient At Barcelona Ignatius was so grievously beaten by some Ruffians that he underwent great danger of his life His recovery is ascribed to a glorious
of Discourses of Purity and Charity of Repentance and of seeking the Kingdom of God. Published by Dean Tillotson 8 o. His Second Volume of Discourses on several Practical Subjects 8 o. Sir Thomas Mores Vtopia newly made English by Dr. Burnet 8 o. Mr. Sellers Devout Communicant assisted with Rules Meditations Prayers and Anthems 12. Dr. Towerson of the Sacraments in General Of the Sacrament of Baptism in particular 8 o. The History of the COVNCIL OF TRENT in which besides the ordinary Acts of the Council are declared many notable occurrences which hapned in Christendom for 40 Years and particularly the Practices of the COVRT of ROME to hinder the Râ—formation of their Errors and to maintain Their Greatness Written by Father Paul of the Servi To which is added the Life of the Author and the History of the Inquisition Dr. Bâ—rnets History of the Reformation of the Church of Eng. in 2 Vol Fol. A Collection of sixteen several Tracts and Discourses written in the Years from 16â—8 to 1685. inclusive by Gilbert Barnet D. D. To which is added A Letter written to Dr Barnet giving an Account of Cardinal Pools secret Powers The History of the Powder Treason with a Vindication of the Proceedings thereupon An Impartial Consideration of the Five Jesuits dying Speeches who were Executed for the Popish Pâ—ot 1679. 4 o. A Dissertation concerning the Government of the Ancient Church more particularly of the Encroachments of the Bishops of Rome upon other Sees By WILLIAM CAVE D.D. 8 vo An Answer to Mr. Serjeant's Sure Footing in Christianity concerning the Rule of Fâ—ith With some other Discourses By WILLIAM FALKNER D. D. 4 o. A Vindication of the Ordinations of the Church of England in Anâ—wer to a Paper written by one of the Church of Rome to prove the Nullity of our Orders By GILBERT BVRNET D D. An Abridâ—ment of the History of the Reformation of the Church of England By GILB BVRNET D D. 8 vo The APOLOGY of the Church of England and an Epistle to one Signior Scipio a Venetian Gentleman concerning the Council of Trent Written both in Latin by the Right Reverend Father in God IOHN IEWEL Lord Bishop of Salisbury Made English by a Person of Quality To which is added The Life of the said Bishop Collected and written by the same Hand 8 vo The Life of WILLIAM BEDEL D. D. Bishop of Kilmore in Ireland Together with Certain Letters which passed betwixt him and Iames Waddesworth a late Pensioner of the Holy Inquisition of Sevil in Matters of Religion concerning the General Motives to the Roman Obedience 8 vo The Decree made at ROME the Second of March 1679. condemning some Opinions of the Iesiuts and other Casuists 4 o. A Discourse concerning the Necessity of Reformation with respect to the Errors and Corruptions of the Church of Rome 4 o. 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Mr Chillingworths Book called The Religion of Protestants a safe way to Salvâ—tion made more generally useful by omitting personal contests but inserting whatsoever concerns the common cause of Protestants or defends the Church of England with an exact Table of Contents and an Addition of some genuine Pieces of Mr. Chillingworths never before Printed viz. against the Infallibility of the Roman Church Transubstantiation Tradition c. And an Account of what moved the Author to turn Papist with his confutation of the said motives An Historical Treatise written by an Author of the Communion of the Church of Rome touching Transubstantiation Wherein is made appear That according to the Principles of that Church this Doctrine cannot be an Article of Faith 4 o. 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