Holiness and that of the Rosary for instance or S. Francis and twenty more by turning Beads or wearing Frocks or Girdles and by such other new Performances To join and keep all this together the Roman Church submits to two Heads the Son of God in Heaven and his Holiness in Italy and Preaches two different and sometimes contrary words of God which you must embrace both together with the same Devotion and Faith namely the written word of God which you may find in the Holy Scripture and the unwritten Tradition which you must seek in that Churches Breast In this unhappy conjuncture of true Catholic Christianity and of mere Roman Popery that happens which you may observe either in unnatural and beastly Copulations the baser kind spoils the better or in the Dreams of Pharaoh the ugly destroies the well-favor'd We find by sad experiences in these last times of the Gospel what heretofore was typified by Ceremonies and also expressed ever after by unhappy Examples under the Law the Flesh which was consecrated and made holy at Gods Altar had not the same vertue to sanctifie the unclean as the unclean had to defile that which was Holy Nor were the Israelites so powerful to convert the Idolatrous Jebusites to God when Married together as were the Jebusites to seduce them to their Idols and for this consideration the Law forbad such Societies Corrupt Nature we know hath of it self both a strange tendency to frivolous and unlawful and no less aversness from truly good and holy things so tho the power of both were equal as to sanctifying or corrupting our inward Inclinations are more likely to determine us to the worst side Never were Women so ready to part with their choicest Jewels as when 't was to make a Golden Calf nor could ever so many Fathers have bin perswaded to be so cruel as to pass their Children thro the fire had it not bin to serve Molock The Kingdom of Heaven is by our Savior compar'd to Seed now one handful of Tare is enough to poison and over-run a whole Field Hence it is that tho the ten Tribes of Israel retained the Law of Moses as well as the Papists do at this present the Gospel yet the holy Prophets mention no other Religion whether in Dan or Beer sheba but the waies of Jeroboam and the Ordinances of Omry And tho the Samaritans did make profession to serve the Lord God of Israel among the gods of other Nations 2 Kings 17.33 Yet their service to these so immediatly takes up their whole Devotion that in the following Verse you find that they do not fear God at all It is by this fatal prevalency of evil over good and the corrupt readiness of Men to yield to this prevalency that the Roman superstition hath not only over-topped but even over-whelmed the Catholic Faith to that degree as any Christian may both see it if he have Eies and must deplore it too if he have any sense or fear of God What the Blessed Evangelists have set down in the four Gospels and what the Blessed Apostles have Preached upon it thro the whole World is yet at Rome as to its being but as to its condition there it is as miserably buried under the confused heap of other new unchristian services as ever was that Book of the Law 2 Kings 22.8 under the Ruines of the Temple Their Masses Legends Auricular Confessions Bulls Praiers to Saints and the Worshipping of Images fill up the Churches and make the main Bulk of all visible Religion There if some good Praiers to God Almighty appear by chance among the Croud it is as one Pater noster among many Ave Maria's that is one among ten in their Beads and if you take the pains to compare how many Praiers Proses Panegyrics and other expressions of the deepest Devotion are bestowed on the Virgin with what is left for our Savior there you shall find somewhat the same proportion between them two as you may see both in the Images that represent them in their Churches and in the most Authentic Visions which are pretended to shew them together to their Monks where she appears still with all the Pomp that can attend a glorious Queen whil'st Christ her Son is still represented but as a Child Thus Papists have the Common Faith and I wish to God they had no more and their own proper Romanism to the very same or like purpose as the Jews have the Law and the Prophets and the Talmud of their Rabbies and as the Turks have both much of Moses and of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and all the Impieties of Mahomet this latter to choak the former as the Tares in the Parable did the good Seed or to dishonor and abuse it as the Babylonians in Dan. 5. did the holy Vessels of Gods house To make all these sins more sinful and Popery more dangerous these unhappy Superstructures which lie as a heavy Encumbrance upon the holy Foundation of God are now adaies used as so many Snares and Attractives to draw Men to the Church of Rome Protestants have among themselves neither better nor other waies of saving distressed Sinners then by charging them to forsake sin to believe and to live according to the Gospel and with this Faith the use of Divine Ordinances to cast their burden and themselves on the Mercies of God in Christ whereas over and above all this the Papists have a great deal more which others do lay no claim to First they have the Queen of Heaven and the Mother of Compassions who is unknown on this account to the best Churches And this Goddess is represented as such a Tresurer of all Graces and a Favorer of such Persons and upon such good and easie terms as without her it were absolutely vain to expect advantage from the aid even of the whole Trinity In the second place they have millions of Saints who whensoever called upon make it their business to help as much as in them lies every condition sort and profession of Men. There is never a small Parish nor Trade no nor any exigence want or disease but hath some favorable and proper Saint The very Images of Wood and Stone are instrumental to great Blessings their Churches and Altars are consecrated in such a manner that the very coming near them forgives some sins The sound and ringing of Bells if Christned after their way hath much vertue Who knows not how much devout persons are benefited by Holy Water and devout Praiers improved to high Merits by holy Beads It were infinite to say all that is pretended of the Agnus Dei Medals and a numberless store of Relics and how they are working every day up and down the World for believing Catholics more Cures then you can ever imagine The Milk the Hairs the Shift the Shoes but especially the Girdle of the Virgin Mary are to this purpose tried and well known What shall we say of those swelling Streams
was enjoined a Greg. Neocaesar Epist Canon to stand without and there with cries and tears b Ambrosius De Paenit l. 1. c. 19. to beg them who came in to pray to God for him 2. Some years or months after he was admitted within Doors but in a remote Corner of the Church behind the Catechumens that is the not Christened Proselytes where they might hear Sermons but not Praiers 3. After such other time as they thought fit he was suffered to hear and pray with the Christians but not to take the Holy Mysteries These with some other Mortifications and trials were all the Penalties inflicted by the Church upon scandalous Offenders the Satisfactions when undergon given by the Offenders to the Church and when humbly and sincerely performed upon good grounds were also thought in the sense above said acceptable to God himself And here among these performances was the only time of Indulgence either to shorten the time or to mitigate the Rigor of the Hardship that they were under 4. This don either with or without favor at last the sinner was at the time appointed for his Readmission brought in into the Church there he kneeled and there the Bishop coming to him as the good Father in the Gospel to the lost Child fell both himself and all the People upon their knees then after holy Praiers and a holy laying on of hands gave him Sacerdotal Blessing and complete Absolution raised him up from kneeling for conclusion of all he was admitted at the same time both to the holy Communion and the Churches Peace The Penitents being thus reconcil'd neither under-went other Punishments nor needed other Indulgences And if that Holy Mother the Primitive Church used to chastise her stubborn Children and upon their amendment to kiss and embrace them afterwards we do not read in any Father that it was ever her Method first to kiss then to correct and punish It is an extravagance proper to Rome to absolve her Penitents and after Absolution to have them punisht thereby to satisfie Divine Justice and so consequently are all her Indulgences to ease men of such Punishments Tricks of their own invention Our Savior did not plague sinners after he had bid them go in Peace and if God kept them afterwards humble and sensible of their former sins by Fatherly Corrections as you read often that he did Psal 89. Hebr. 12. 1 Corinth 11. Roman Indulgences are but both idle and sawcy Toies to take them off And this brings to the second visible Character by which you may discern the Primitve Relaxations from the present Roman Indulgences 1. Therefore as to this second the Fathers of the Primitive Church never intended with their Condescensions or favors to moderate or to take off any other Punishments then that which they had laid on by their own sentence and Censure They knew that the Power of reteining and the Power of remitting which God allowed them in his Church are both i Suares de Indulg Disp 50. Sect. 2. n. 5. proportioned and relative the one to the other and that they could remit nothing but when they had bin able to bind This appears so by the very Contents and Form of their Warrant Whatsoever you shall bind on Earth c. Matth. 1.16.19 and 18.18 and John 20.23 Where the power of Loosing and Remitting follows close to that of Retaining and Binding This is exercised by Excommunications and Censures that by taking them away in the reconciling of Offenders and both Keies turn in the same wards that is within the same compass within the Ministerial Pale of the Church and within the bounds of this Life Roman Popes are the first Hectors who durst break out beyond these Lines and roving into Purgatory there over-rule Divine Justice and pull out thence out of Gods hands the Souls whom they say his Vengeance doth burn and torment This is then the drift of the Popes and the second visible Mark of their best and most authentic Indulgences that whereas the Fathers of the Church never attemted to dispose of any other punishments then such as they had inflicted the Popes stretch their hands much farther even as far as to reverse the Judgments which as they presuppose it God inflicts Now let Rome ransack their Learning and procure from any corner of good and known Antiquity one precedent for such Indulgences In the mean while laying aside Antiquity which in true Conscience cannot but shame this new attemt it is a business worth enquiring what these Roman Indulgences whether new or old are in themselves They are intended for these c Bellarm. de Indulg l. 1. c. 7. two ends 1. The easing of true Penitents from the Penalties laid on them by their Confessors after their Absolution here in the Church 2. And the removing of more grievous punishments laied on them by God Almighty yonder in Purgatory And certainly it is hard to say in the which of these two you shall find less both Impiety and Extravagancy 1. The Indulgences for the first end are both foolish and impious upon several accounts What rebellious attemt is this to bind to punishment those Men as it is supposed contrite and truly penitent for their sins whom the Gospel of Christ looses and absolves May not one as well curse whom God blesses as retain or bind whom God remits And if one may bind the Penitents whom God absolves may he not as well unbind the Faithless and Impenitents whom God hath bound If so we know where the Antichrist lies yet he should go and learn Manners from the Example of Balaam Num. 23.8 They say that what they bind their Penitents to is not a Punishment only but an useful Correction also Then I say what they do in binding them whom God doth loose shall be as far a Rebellion as it is a punishment and as far unlawful and unchristian to take off as 't is an useful Correction and as it was good to lay it on And have the Popes no better waies to fill their Coffers and to maintain their Holinesses then by such a Trade of Indulgences as dispense with Men against their own good 2. There is yet more to justifie their Penalties from being a resisting of God and a retaining what he remits they say that after Absolution they lay no more on any Man then what a sincere Penitent d is both willing to undergo and obliged by the fear of God and the sense of his Conscience to do or suffer and that this is it properly and directly what the Indulgences do ease Men from Do not then call this if you please Rebellion or Resisting God but you cannot choose but perceive that if this same penitent Soul lies not between a cruel binding Confessor and a gracious remitting God she now falls into another as bad or worse condition For here is within the sense of Conscience that charges her to do or suffer such a thing and there is without a
in applying it to strangers or God the Father being there present in applying it to his Children Is it that Christs Redemtion must come to Rome and there be ratified by some Bull before it be good against Burning Secondly this Paiment however reacht to is they say presented to God by the Pope It is so in all Indulgences but in those especially which his Holiness grants for the dead For there the Pope rescues no man from what he suffers but by offering as much to God of Christs Sufferings that so Justice they say n Bellarmin de Indulg l. 1. c. 14. sect Tertia Quaestio may be satisfied by the exchange And herein lies a most impious Absurdity 1. For what is this to offer up again what Christ by his eternal Spirit offered before Was not Christs once offering it sufficient Is the Popes Offering more acceptable and since Christ alone can by the Law of Mechisedecs Priest-hood offer up his Body and Blood what is the Popes second Offering in every Bull but a most sacrilegious Boldness Will they say that this Offering is merely intentional such as every Christian may do by praier then say I the Indulgence which the Pope sells with this kind of Offering is a mere Cheat if it be more it is the Sacrilege 2. Secondly what a rude extravagancy is it to offer to God for Paiment his own Mony and to present him with that which he had already from an incompatably better hand Is this fair and honest dealing to pay one out of his own Purse and what Piece of Courtship is it in a Subject to present his Prince with nothing else then his own proper Roial Jewels This is the truth of Christs Satisfaction and Pope and Papists should either learn or teach it better Christ having once offered to God a Ransom most sufficient to redeem all men both from all sins and all the Penalties which attend them God the Father hath accepted of it for such at the hands of his Dear Son Now the way of applying this great and infinite Sacrifice and of rendring it as well all Efficacious to us as it is al-sufficient in it self is not to return it up to God either by ordinary Priests at Mass or by Popes pretending to repay it him in Indulgences for this were rather the way of applying it to God who gives then to us who must receive it but to beg it of God through Christ by continual Praiers to thirst and long after it by the sense of our wants and unworthiness to qualify our selves towards the receiving of it by repenting and then to embrace what God according to his mercies and promises will give to embrace it I say with faith and secure it to our selves by a constant course of holy life Or to say the same in Roman terms The Church hath an infinite Tresure both of Satisfactions and Merits out of which you may have as many Jubilees and Plenary Indulgences for all your Sins and all the Penalties whether eternal or temporal that attend sin as you shall want This Tresure of Satisfactions hath already bin both so sufficiently and so efficaciously offered to God by Christ and accepted of by God for you that without any farther Offering by Mass Oblations or Popes Bulls it stands alwaies before God in his mind and acceptation God is pleased to offer it you full as it is in his Gospel His Holy Sacraments and his gracious Promises are both his Bulls and Indulgences and be sure that you shall gain them if you are but willing and earnest to have them Only know this that Christ who is the Steward and the Dispenser of the Tresure throws it not a way undiscreetly on every sinner that bids mony None of his Indulgences are to be had sine Causa rationabili as the Bull-mongers use to speak without some reasonable cause which is leaving the Pope to come with repentance and Faith to Christ instead of bowing to a Rosary Altar or an Image to humble your self and walk uprightly both before God and before men Now have you got the whole Tresure upon these reasonable terms you have the keies along with it as far as your private concern reaches Impepenitency or continuing in any sin are the two ordinary keies that lock it up holy Faith and true Charity are the keies that get it open There are keies of another kind that belong to public Persons S. Peter S. Paul and all the Lawful Officers in the house of God These public keies are to lock out of it all such wretches as stand in the Church to shame it and to open it to them again when after due proofs of Amendment they shall watch and knock at her Gates And this is more then perhaps you think for altho directly they belong only to the Church they do also consequently both lock or open Gods good Tresure and in some manner Heaven it self For tho Christ properly be the keeper of as well as the way and the Gate of this Celestial Palace take it for certain that his Keies do shut or open his Kingdom whensoever Paul or Apollos or any other Lawful Bishop Lawfully shuts or opens the Church and whensoever also your private ones shut or open your own Tresure If Rome trespass against the rule as her keies may turn wrong and not in the wards of the Catholic Church your private ones shall serve your turn and the keies of Christ will second them These keies every true Christian as Tertullian p saies very well doth keep and carry about him and may with them attain unto the tender Mercies of God and the satisfaction of Christ for all his sins without the Bull of any Pope The very Papists do confess it tho they do it in other words when they say r Becan de Sacram. c. 31. sect 1. Parag. Tertia Conclusio Lay-man de Sacram. Poenit. c. 1. n. 8. That there is no mortal sin but may be remitted by true Co trition without the Sacrament of Penance Only for fear of beggering themselves they keep in their own Power the remitting of Temporal Pains This one Reservation makes all the trouble about Pardons and so secures all the profit It makes all the trouble for Pardons for let the foulest sinner go and confess the meanest Mass Priest can absolve him from all his sins and from all the eternal punishments in Hell and if some Repentance be required tho some s Sylvester Verb. Confess 1. c. 21. Soto in 4. Sent. d. 14. q. 4. a. 3. think it scarce necessary it will go hard with the Penitent if a very small sorrow be not counted Attrition and by the power of their Keies be not elevated that is made to pass into such a degree of Contrition or Roman Repentance as shall secure the worst Livers from Eternal Destruction And God knows how many Wretches both are drawn away to that Church and there emboldened to sin by this sweer Enchantment But when
Mary and partly got and stolen from her Son when he had bin in her own lap What can you not hope of S. Osanna another sister of this holy Confraternity who being yet t Balinghen Calendar B. M. 17. Jun. a Child had the Virgin for her School-Mistress and being come to riper years had the Holy Babe for her Husband What shall I say of St. Alanus of Dinam for whose Deliverance the u Chronic. Deip. an 1212. Rosary Goddess destroied his Enemies at land with 150 Thunderbolts and raised out of the deep Sea as many Mountains an equal number to his Beads to make him a Bridg to run away and what of the other S. Alanus de Rupe the Restorer of Rosaries the true x Ibid. an 1476. Husband of this Goddess and withal her bosom sucker Have these and all whom I could name Popes Cardinals and other Grandees of the same Confraternity cast nothing into the Tresury And if all these did not cast in enough take all Gods Saints from the very beginning of the World to the year 1431. for if Roman Revelations be at all true they y Arch. Caraccius De Rosar part 4. c. 35. all without exception use and sing out the Rosary Take along with them all the Angels and as they love to speak the whole Celestial Court for every good Roman Catholic is perswaded unless they offer to contradict z B. Alan parf. 1. c. 19. both S. Alan and his Virgin that they also sing in Heaven the Rosary and that both these to wit Saints and Angels make up but one Arch-Confraternity together Now the Custom of this Society a Navar. de Psalter Miscellan 9. n. 4. being so free as to limit no favors at all as others most commonly do but to allow to every Member a full Communication of all what a huge deal of wealth is all this to every one be he otherwise never so poor All the Intercessions of Saints above all the Merits of more Saints below all the extraordinary showers of Privileges and full Indulgences from Rome all the watchings and helps of the good Angels and that which must be reckoned above all things the continual favor and Countenance of the Queen of Heaven her self in this vast Concurrence of all the Saints and holy things from Heaven and Earth together what can the wit of man fancy that both this Confraternity may not contain and the Rosary Brother well expect Are you for a shelter against public Calamities The Holy Rosary is good for it They think that by the strength of this Weapon the b Gregor 13. Bull. Monet Apostolus Turks were beaten from Europe the war ceased from d Leo 10. Bull. Pastoris aeterni Cologne and e Arch. Carac de Ros part 1. c. 17. Genua and the great Plague f Id. part 4. Miracul 19. from Pavia Are you troubled with private Distresses Frier Amat had no better way to g Chronic. Deip. an 1538. choak a Devil nor S. Salvator h Ibid. an 1567. to cure the deaf nor S. Dominic i Bov. tom 13. an 1213. n. 9. to procure Children and cure Barrenness nor General Montfort and Captain Anthony k Alanus de Insulis in Rosar to rout Armies nor the two Spanish Women l Archang in Rosario part 4. to escape hanging What they say of the Spanish Ass is most pertinent to this purpose This Beast is often in that Country made use of to carry condemned Persons to the place of Execution and 't is not heard but the innocent stupid Animal performs quietly this Office except one time m Lopaz de Rosar l. 1. c. 10. when it grew so intelligent as to perceive that the Wretch who was on its back related to the Rosary then it was wonderful to see how quick and nimble this slow Beast turns back again from the Gallows and galloping through all the Guards who attended the Execution and all the common People which then was thronging to see it carries her dear charge to the Church there laies it down most devoutly before a Rosary Altar You must conceive that either the Grace infused into these Beads at their Consecration works out these ordinary Miracles or that the Rosary Queen whom they call the Mistress of the World and the General of this Order is alwaies present and active upon all great Exigencies wherein her Officers are concerned especially when she sees them bearing up or marching under that which she takes n Caraccius de Rosar part 1. c. 10. for her Banner Nevertheless tho the essential Riches of this potent Confraternity be so extremely considerable in all Secular advantages even sometimes so as o Navar. de Horis Canon c. 19. n. 160. to make Men fortunate in Wives and all other Bargains yet it s great worth lies more in all Spiritual and Eternal Concerns St. Alain who never was seen without the Ring which our Lady p Gonon Chronic. an 1476. twisted for him of her own Hair nor without that Heavenly Chain of Beads which she put about his Neck at the same time doth assure us upon this account that to be enrolled in the Book of this happy Confraternity is q Beat. Alan part 1. c. 17. to be enrolled in the very Book of Life that the benefit which they receive from being thus registred r Id. c. 18. is no less then to be chosen and adopted for Gods Children that such registred Persons are much better then the hundred forty four thousand were in the seventh of St. Johns Revelation and that all Friends and Promoters of this admirable Society do set up for all sinners as good as the Ladder in Jacobs Vision to scale Heaven And as for themselves they shall be there glorified not only as Abel and Abraham and the other Patriarchs are but as the noblest Angels of God And let none be discouraged from this great Hope for feeling himself but a sinful Wretch since as the same Father saies if true Qui propriis c. that the very Reprobates as to their proper and personal Demerits are made the Children of God by the communion and benefit of this Society For as a Rosary had in the hand of S. Salvator the vertu of curing Quartan Agues when it was laid t Chronic. Min. l. 5. tit 4. upon ones head so it had in the hand of St. Dominic a greater Gift namely that of infusing Grace or however expelling Vice when laid u Bovius Annal. to 13. an 219. n. 12. at Night under ones Pillow For my part I know no fowler Villain then that Noble Man at Paris was who was sanctified by this means Where ever was a more prostitute Whore then fair Catharina at Rome who both in the heat of her Lust and her Zeal for this blessed Rosary was converted also and in such an extraordinary manner x Chronic. Deip. an 1221. as is not fit for
and the ordinary Seats of Roman Saints and when Bellarmin with some others say that they do honor these Images as signs only representing and and not as Seats and Instruments inhabited or assisted by the invisible Spirit of their Saints they are confuted by these two waies the visible Practice of their Church and the invisible Testimony of their own private Consciences What might be said more probably both in behalf of these Images and of their zealous Devotion in worshipping them is what frees them from the reproach which Holy Scripture casts on Idols that they have Eies and see withal they have Hands wherewith they handle and somtimes give terrible blows if they have Mouths it is not in vain since they can cry and laugh and speak and somtimes also Prophesie Feet have they and thereon leap and walk and flee and if they have Noses they smell therewith and can tell where the wanton and the wicked Persons are All this I say from their own approved Authors Only the main difficulty remains and I conjure all sober Men as they tender their Salvation to look how to satisfie it well to know what is the inward Principle Spirit or Soul which moves and animates these dead Figures to all and more then what living Bodies can perform with the help of their living Souls Here let the Roman Catholics well consider whether to justifie them by these acts of activity from being Idols doth not by the same means both accuse and convince them of being Devils The Holy Scripture warns Men often against false Christs and false Prophets against false Apostles and false Spirits it were strange if we had no need of warning or of being wary against false Saints I find somtimes the best Roman Monks much puzled what to think of their most celebrated Apparitions and tho they trust too much their Holy Water a pitiful trial God knows in the discernment of the good from the bad Spirits yet they do not think it uncatholic to demur somtimes in such matters It is neither want of Learning nor want of Faith in the School-men the Primitive Fathers of Popery which makes them dispute now and then whether that which they see at Mass under the Figure of raw Flesh or a young Child be Christ himself or a Phantome and certainly we have no ground either in Scripture or in Reason or in Experience to secure us but that the Devils which play such pranks both in Apparitions and on Altars may juggle as well and play worse tricks about consecrated Images First It is no small prejudice against these Roman Images and the Roman way of using them that both came so late into the Church and that in the best Primitive Times when the Church was a purer Virgin none but Heretics had Images whereas in these later and worse Ages when the Church is confessedly worse too no Roman Catholics are without them It is also no small prejudice against the best as it is supposed and the most famous of these Images that when they were admitted at first as either visible Records of Ecclesiastical Antiquity or as Ornaments of new Walls not one of them did work Miracles or if it did 't was in behalf of Infidels and Pagans only as it is presupposed by Patriarch Tharasius n Nicaen Synod secund Act. 4. pag. 626. Edit Bin. Paris 1634. the great Promoter of Image Worship whereas now since they are become both the Objects and the Instruments of Roman Devotion and Blessing they generally work all Miracles in behalf of the Romanists The alteration in the Church as it is now full of Images from the Church as it was then without any Image Worship as it is visible and great must have some visible and great Cause Is it because the Pagans and the Heretics then and the Mass-Priests and Papists now understand the worth of Images and the right use of Image-worship better then the Holy Apostles did Or is it because the Holy Apostles had neither Patriarchs nor Prophets nor Martyrs to make Saints of or to consecrate Images to Is it not more probable to think that this Alteration hath thus happened because both Pagans and Papists are of the same mind as to Images And because the Spirits which Christ and his Blessed Apostles had silenced and beaten off from most of their Pagan Quarters having long wandered among the Heathen and in dry places have at last found better shelter and emploiment at Lauretta Montserat and other great Roman Oracles What can one think else of Images which having kept themselves close dumb and obscure in the best and Primitive daies take now their advantage to start up and to make a noise and to shew Miracles in these later times of the Church when both by Christ and his Apostles Predictions and the Judgment p Joseph Acosta de Temporib Novissim l. 3. c. 3. 14. of sober Papists all must be full of false Prophesies of strong Illusions and lying Wonders Secondly That which aggravates the suspition of appearing in unhappy Times like the coming of Thieves and unexpected Straglers in dark Nights is the ugly and pitiful Holes where most of these Images were at first found For these Images I mean those wonderful and famous ones which the Roman Church runs most after were neither lately made by common Painters nor consecrated by ordinary Roman Bishops they are supposed to have bin made and consecrated by no meaner Workmen then God himself his Christ his Angels and such of his Saints as S. Luke S. Nicodemus c. were and so left and deposited to the Christian Church and Catholic Tradition Hereupon let me ask two things absolutely necessary for any sober satisfaction The first When and where if ever at all these Saints made these Images and by laying on of their Hands or otherwise conferred on them the Gifts of Speaking of Prophecying and working Miracles or put in them an inward or assisting Spirit to make them speak foretel and do strange things The second When and where having used them as it is supposed they have they thought fit to bury them under Ground and to hide some among Thorns some under Brambles all in most pitiful places as dark Holes and hollow Trees where they were found and where any wise Man would rather look for Worms or Toads If you say they hid them in those places for fear of the Pagan Persecuters Pagans were not haters at all nor destroiers of Images contrariwise they loved Images as Papists do But since they were great Burners and Destroiers of Holy Scriptures Why would the Apostolical Men rather hide their Books under ground which were most principally both hated and sought after then their Images which were not so And if they hid both Images and Books together by what universal Mischance did they never find any of these where they found those How came the Holy Scriptures to discover themselves so soon ever in cruellest times of the Primitive