still building and pulling down our opinions Former Catholick Christians practised and we dispute They had a religion fixt we are still seeking one They exercised themselves in good works by the guidance of their holy faith which led them towards them and pressed their duty all these works we by our new way evacuate They had the substance of religion in their hearts we the text in our lips They had nothing to do but conform their lives to Gods will all our endeavour is to apply Gods word to our own faction Let there be no longer a mistake the question is not whether people are to have Gods word or no but whether that word consist in the letter left to the peoples disposal or in the substance and meaning of it urgently imposed upon people for their practice And we must still and ever remember that it is not Gods will or word but the letter of scripture onely which makes here-ticks this may be depraved by men unto their own destruction that cannot So that when we come to a conclusion of these things there is no such Catholick doctrine faith or religion amongst us which prescribes any of these thing put here in his third chapter upon the Roman Church For first our Catholick way is so far from keeping Gods word from the people that it has been the only great endeavour of our Church and pastors in all times and places to derive Gods word and will in such a manner unto people that they may observe and keep it however they will not permit the letter promiscuously unto all hands without a knowledge of their ability and stayedness even as they do not suffer all sorts of men to come to holy communion without a license and assurance of their lives and persons Secondly that our efficacy of sacraments depends upon meer administration without any preparation of mind is so false that every Catholick boy and girl arrived to years of discretion will hiss at it Thirdly that we pray in an unknown tongue and know not what we say is a calumny onely proper for the wise men of Gotam Fourthly that prayers for one another after this life ended do hinder our own holiness and devotion in this present life is a paradox fit onely for discourse in a tavern or coffee-house over cups Fifthly that our sacrament of penance with interiour contrition sufficeth us without any amendment of life or purpose towards it is a slander which the doctor could not have vented with applause on any other ground but Billingsgate He took it seems more pleasure to shew an evil wit than a good candid nature which is a perfection more becoming him and if I be not mistaken by too much charity more apparent in his courteous conversation with his neighbours than in his written Romances or books made against the Church of Rome which are so false and injurious that they cannot but hurt as well our Protestant neighbours who read and believe them as poor innocent Catholicks who dislike and suffer them And now dear Sir I bid you farwel the second time FINIS ΤΩ ΚΑΘΟΛΙΚΩ FANATICISM I Am now Sir arrived to the Doctors merriment a merriment peculiarly prophane which has gained him much applause He endeavours in his 4. Chapter to declare and prove that the Church of Rome is fanatical founded and supported on fanaticism A merry theme and fit for a terrae filius And I suppose here that he means by the Church of Rome not any material building of stone and morter either the floar or walls windows pillars steeple or weather-cock nor yet any men or women boys or girls in England Ireland France or other countreys but the Catholick faith and religion protest all over the world by such as we now in England call Papists For his readers both Catholick and Protestant do understand him so to mean And this religion and faith he proves by such arguments to be fanatical as might infer fanaticism indifferently upon all Kingdoms of the earth and all mankind thus he speaks There were two men and as many more women in distant times and places who pretended revelations about the unspotted purity of the blessed Virgin Mary Therefore is the Catholick Church and faith fanatical Secondly one St. Catherin of Sena is said to have had shining wounds in her body and to smell the stench of lecherous men therefore is their faith and Church fanatical Thirdly St. Gregory and St. Bede write of some apparitions therefore is their religion and faith fanatical Fourthly one Bishop appointed a day to be holiday another built a Church and both were done by revelation therefore is their faith and religion fanatical Fifthly St. Bennet St. Francis St. Dominick St. Romewal and St. Bruno founders of chief religious orders among them had many symptoms of madmen as to prophesie to see angels to neglect their bodies to be beaten and scoft at by men therefore is their religion and Church fanatical Sixthly about four hundred years ago there rose a pernicious heresie which spread far and caused much disturbance before they could silence and suppress it 〈◊〉 therefore is their Church and religion fanatical Seventhly St. Ignatius founder of the Society of Jesuits was such another fool as St. Francis and laboured and suffered much before he could get his order and rule approved by the Bishop therefore is the Roman Church fanatical Eightly one man among them of late printed a spiritual book wherein were some words and phrases unusual and hardly intelligible therefore is the religion and Church of Rome fanatical Ninthly three men amongst them in this last age uttered blasphemous words against the honour and prerogative of Kings who are Gods Vicegerents upon earth therefore is Catholick religion fanatical All these hollow voices are to be heard and seen in this his Bartholmew Booth for the recreation of such as love it issuing unto our great wonderment onely from the belly of one man breaking wind in the midst of it § 1. Let us see then how all this put together does prove the Church of Rome whose emblem it is intended to be fanatical It is an easie thing to act upon a stage the gravest and soberest man alive in a drunken posture Wit without honesty and confidence without conscience can pervert and turn things upside down at pleasure But a little reflection will set all straight again The Catholick Church and religion here represented as fanatical first it has subsisted by the confession of our first reforming Protestants even from the Apostles days or very little after spread all over Europ Asia and Africa Secondly it has been imbraced and owned by Kings and Princes honourable Lawyers learned Physicians stout Captains subtil Philosophers people innumerable as the very sands on the sea shore Thirdly it made and framed the Laws both of our own Countrey and every Christian Kingdom Fourthly it built the many goodly Churches all over the world even those here wherein now Protestants the right
is here put upon the Jesuitical party And yet it is nothing to our purpose if it were But as to the personal designs of them or any others we can no more dive into them then into the several wandering thoughts and purposes of men museing daily in London-streets about their affairs And one man or other thus museing amiss amongst the Jesuits can no more be called the Jesuitical party then such a one here in England be termed the English party Mariana I am sure has been soundly checkt amongst them and other Catholicks for his fault here spoken of And if the Court or Courtiers of Rome have any fancy that they are higher than Kings and by their excommunication can render them Kings no more as this Doctour here speaks this may argue indeed that they are a high minded people But Courtiers do not walk so exactly according to our Christian religion that this can prove that vanity of theirs to be any part of it Catholick Kings who have been here in England well nigh twenty since the Conquest more among the Saxons and others not a few amongst our antient Brittains and the present Catholick Kings of France Spain the Emperour German Princes and others have and do all know well enough that such a fancy is no part of our Catholick religion Nor did our King Henry the Eighth who first left it off express any such cause or reason for it The times would be very good and happy if all the words and actions of every particular man were answerable to his holy faith But this is not to be expected in this evil world And to call that religion which is done or spoken contrary unto it is a very great injury and injustice Our holy religion teaches us to observe and obey our Kings and Superiours as Gods Vicegerents upon earth though they be Infidels and Pagans and rather to lay down our lives for them then suffer them to be hurt And this is nothing but the very law of Nature antecedent to any religion whatsoever and holds good although there were neither heaven nor hell nor any reward or punishment to come And what power can any man upon earth have to take that away which he never gave nor ever had He that creates can only annihilate So long as kings are Catholicks the Pope prays for them And if they cease to be so he is nothing to them any more And yet are they the same they were in all their royalty and power uncontroulably If the King of France should receive the Garter from our King of England he is thought to be so long his friend as he is pleased to wear it But if he throw it off he is King of France still as much as ever he was I know not what the Court or Courtiers of Rome may think or say in this business For what the Doctour here tells us about the Irish remonstrance is a personal business and not so circumstanced that one can draw any general conclusion or position from it But if they be only so much as said either to have conceived or countenanced any such opinion looked upon by all Catholicks and good Christians upon earth as ungrounded fals and impious it behoves them I should think both for the publick good honour of Catholick religion and their own credit to see it censured with all speed that the progress of Christianity be not stopped by it For no Pagan King will venture at a promise of everlasting felicity with the hazard of his Crown at the pleasure of one man whom he never saw nor knows Sure I am if any such opinion had been heard of when Christianity was first planted in Kingdoms it had never found footing in this world And if it be now countenanced the progress of Christianity is at an end I doubt not but that a Cotholick writer may in his controversy about religion if so he pleas defend an opinion also of any one or other who has professed the Catholick religion which he maintains But this is more then any one needs to do For religion is quite another thing derived from another authour and original established in another manner no less differing from an opinion then a fixed star in the firmament from the mist or fog ariseing from the earth Faiâ—h is one known thing but opinions are innumerable and endless If the various opinions entertained in mens minds but one only day in any City of England were all faithfully recorded at night they would exhibite to a Reader a most prodigious spectacle Opinions are infinitly various infinitly changable infinitely contradictory and absurd in the world Nor may we doubt but that thousands of them are contrary both to religion and law Angry rageing men and wanton women unfaithful servants and di obedient children theevs and murderers cheats and liars can we think when they act according to their own disordered passions that they hold not then an opinion that in such circumstances it is expedient for them so to do Wicked sinners hold wicked opinions be the religion what it will Gainsay and blame them in their heat and it will soon appear that they are stiff and resolved in that their opinion by the very fury of their wrath And what will not sycophants and flatterers either say or write to pleas the mind of those on whom they depend even against their own Rules of law and religion are fixt and stable and ever the same But opinions are moveable as water and never right but when conformable to a right rule of some good law and how far they are conformable so far are they right and no more And therfore it is a madness in any one who undertakes to write against the standard of a religion to object instead of that opinions of men For first one man may have an opinion to day and write it also in a book and yet few years after nay perhaps very few days change his mind Secondly the opinion of one man may be gain-said by a thousand as wise as he who live under the same law and religion Thirdly an opinion in a book is indeed nothing at all in the world but a meer pâ—atonick idea till it be reduced to some reall existence by circumstances which actuate it and make the action really to be and some opinions are worse then nothing For which reason all the multitude of opinions which sill up the books of learned Casuists may be exercises of wit indeed but no guids can they be unto action The direction of a liveing Oracle and Counsellour who can penetrate all present circumstances and prescribe by his wisdom on which side is then most of good and least of evil which is the only rule that directs a wise counsellour what to determin this only is our guide in doubts Wherfore the great Princes of the earth recurre not to books in their difficulties but use the wisdom of their counsel wise and grave men who must hear all
his own that people may hear and read in both places not what Catholicks do but what they do not and yet so confidently charged upon them as if it were their right And thus he makes sport for himself but marrs none very careful not to obstruct but set open a way for his prattle which is a pretty piece of wit if it had a little honesty to make it rellish § 3. I do not perceive the Author to be so jolly in this his second Chapter as in his first Nor does he argue so positively against this great work of Christian Religion no less solid and certain then Christianity it self as he did before against the ceremonious use of an Image which Catholicks heed no otherways then ornaments of their Religion fruitful in so many sweet fragrant Roses and Lillies of their Martyrs and other blessed Saints And therefore Dr. St. winks himself that his reader may think here is no truth to be seen Full of doubts he is that Catholicks may be thought doubtful What can they show what can they urge for this their worship The authority of the Roman Church that is little worth A speedy quick and dextrous dispatch Catholick tradition where is it why do they not shew it who ever heard of it Poor man he cannot see wood for trees nor London perhaps in the midst of Cheapside except some body point at it The numerous volumns that have set forth this Catholick tradition as eminent as clear as universal as Christianity it self he now remembers them not no not any one of them can he now call to mind to lead him out of the maze he is in Will they pretend Scripture all that is disputed that is otherwise intérpreted If he continue in this his perplexity he will turn Atheist by and by For there is no one Article of Christian faith or Scripture that speaks it but has been disputed denied and otherwise interpreted What can Scripture saith he do without Councils and what are Councils but fallible mistaking businesses A sad plight the man is in but it is on his own accord and free will that his reader may imagine Catholicks who are all the world over in a peaceable possession of this their faith to be in the same pickle too He simply conceits Catholicks to have their faith to pick up some where and he cannot possibly tell where they should glean it with any assurance or quiet at least he would have it thought they cannot Bellarmin saith he declares by convincing arguments that Christ is God and to be worshipped but what Church what tradition what Counsel what Fathers tell us any such thing of the Host Alas poor dark man we must not then ever think to pick our Religion out of Bellarmin it seems And so must needs be in the same case with those Christians who lived before Bellarmins time that is to say either to have our Religion already without Bellarmins help or to seek it But where had Bellarmin yet a Child where had he his Faith before he wrote any thing surely not out of Bellarmins books It is a wonder the Dr. thinks not of this to help him a little to his sound sences But he is in his extasie and will be in it still And he tells us in this his rapture that Bellarmin proved by convincing arguments that Christ is God and to be worshiped but who ever said the like of the Host We know and remember well enough that the same Bellarmin who proves so laboriously that Christ is God declares also no less effectually in a whole treatise of the same volume of controversies both our Lords Divine presence in the Eucharist and our supream veneration love and honour there due unto him This we know and this the Dr. did himself know also before he drave himself into these his fained Apoplexies wherein he has indeed some imperfect glimpses of it even now that we may give him his due but the whole treatise in Bellarmin seems to him now at this his distance but as a small black mote such as an Eagle may happly appear to us flying in the Clouds five miles high above our heads an atome a little on this side nothing and therefore not worth speaking of And by this means he goes on glibly in his extacies and exclamations unto the end What ground have Papists what ground have they for this their worship Scripture Tradition Councels Fathers Church Reason where are they what are they worth who ever saw them why are they not shown Thus the good man raves Although all people before this last and worst age who ever in any place bore the name of Christians both Latin and Greek Bishopricks who filled up Europe and all the rest every where Armenians Habassins Maronites Jacobites Muscovites Melthites had all of them this one solemn adoration of God in the Eucharist as the great work of Christianity although antient Fathers especially the Grecians have left more record of it than any other parcel of Christian belief and practice although many great laborious and learned volumnes have been set forth in this last age both in France Germany and England whereby that Catholick piety is so demonstrated that none who considers things in earnest can refrain to acknowledg it yet does Dr. St. in his deep extasy forget all this and cryes out who ever said it who ever proved it who ever profest it And he hopes his Reader who is seldom wiser than his book will answer to his question and say No body No body Sir you are in the right and Papists are meer Fools and Blockheads § 4. The drift of this Chapter is to shew that we can neither believe our Lords presence in the Eucharist nor do any homage to God in him there figured according to his own solemn Institution as Crucified among us unto our reconciliation and peace And truly his discourse here tending thereunto is all of it so extraordinary slight that one cannot tell whether himself be serious or that he do indeed take us all for Mushromes so soft and foolish that we will be carryed away at his pleasure by any thing or indeed by nothing Suppose saith he we have the same Divine Revelation of Christs presence in the Eucharist as of the Divinity of his Person yet can we not possibly worship here as there because there it is said let all the Angels adore him but we have no command to worship the Host As though one and the same command Let all the Angels adore him would not serve indifferently both in Heaven and Earth both for Angels and men where ever he is present The Divine revelation of his presence needs no further command to ingage our worship nor is that said command Let all men honour the Son as the Father and let all the Angels worship him determined to any one place or to any one mode of his presence St. Paul worshipped our Lord in the fields of Damascus where he met him
Religion but on the contrary a tenour and rule of life drawn out of Gospel and confirmed by his own Prelate and Ecclesiastical Superiour The ways of fanaticks fanaticism are quite contrary to this Much less have we here any resistance of Authority but a submission to Authority and an humble expectation of their approbation and licence He must surely think our Kingdom of England to be much alienated from the Kingdom of God if he hope to perswade them that love of poverty neglect of worldly wealth and humane literature charity to the poor divine revelations powerful preaching against sin melting affections towards God and a rule of life drawn out of Gospel is fanaticisme He will be a very dull reader who will not hence conclude that our twelve Apostles were the first and chiefest fanaticks in the world And this our wits too much prone to loosness and atheism will greedily enough and nimbly infer and perhaps rejoyce that they have an Atheist in Print to propagate their infidelity Atheism loves not lonelines but is then most secure when the company is greatest But it will be here objected why then did St. Bennet St. Francis and St. Dominick make themselves new rules Is not this a new religion Sir although a Catholick cannot easily be so ignorant as to ask any such question as this is yet because it may be the straw at which Dr. Still stumbles who as in this his whole book he speaks like a Child so for ought I know he may understand like a Child I say therefore that a new rule is so far from a new religion that the Gospel can do little good without it For the counsels and precepts of Gospel whereby our souls are to be sanctified and ordered to our final end are all general and abstracted from any circumstance of time or place or measure or manner to the end they may be indifferent to the many conditions professions and imployments of mankind in their several states and ages Watching fasting works of charity mortification of sensuality continence repentance administration of Sacraments and the various like good things commended to us in our holy Gospel are so prescribed and counselled us that the manner the when the where how often how long and other such like circumstances without which those rules and counsels cannot be brought down to execution and practâ—ce are not specified Therefore hath the Catholâ—ck Church brought down some of these things unto individual circumstances when she appointed rites and times for Sacraments set holy days for people to meet together in their meditations and prayers set times for fasts others for confession others for Communion some for rejoycing in our Lord some for mourning and doing pennance so much and in such a manner as might well consist with the generality of the Catholick world But because neither is this sufficient for our daily progress unless people considering their own particular occasions and the lettanees which may occur more in one hour of the day then another ether set themselves a further rule for their daily piety and particular ordering of their houses or follow the direction herein of some wiser and better man Hence it is that so many rules have issued forth in the Christian world by which some people have governed their own private houses accommodating them in the best wise they could unto their affairs and others have quite retired out of the world to serve God more perfectly all their life according to this or that approved rule in a more full observance of it under Monastical obedience This is the motive nature and end of so many rules in the Church of God whereof some suit best with one complexion and some with another And all of them tend unto the bringing down of Gospel unto a constant practice And what Christian soever sets himself no such rule nor follows any must needs live a loose and careless if not a wicked life although he should have the whole Gospel by heart and be able to speak it all without book If the exact lives and pious rules of St. Bennet St. Francis St. Dominick St. Basil St. Brunâ— St. Romwall and such like men were printed together in our English tongue with the pictures of their Religious men met together either in their Refectory Schools or Quire this one sight would I am confident more move my good Protestant Country-men who are daily abused with Ministerial lies against us then any one book of controversie can do I will only set down here the one rule of St. Francis according to which his religious disciples are regulated all their life time throughout the world whereby either your self Sir or any other may judge whether he be worthily called either fool or fanatick St. Francis his Rule Chap. 1. THe rule and life of Fryar minours is this To observe the holy Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord living in obedience without property of goods and in chastity Brother Francis doth promise obedience and reverence unto Bishop Honorius his Lord and to his Successors Canonically installed and to the Roman Church And be other Fryars bound to obey Brother Francis and his Successors Ch. 2. If any shall be willing to take this life and shall therefore present themselves to our Brothers let them be sent to the Provincial Ministers who may only and none besides them have power to admit them The Ministers must be diligent to examine them about Catholick Religion and Church Sacraments And if they believe these things and will faithfully confess them and firmly observe them to the end and either have no Wives or those Wives if any they have are entered into Monasteries or by the authority of the Bishop of the Diocesse are dismist a vow of continence now solemnly made and their said Wives be of that age that there can arise no suspicion of them let the Ministers then speak unto them the word of holy Gospel that they go and sell all their goods and bestow them upon the Poor Which thing if they cannot be able to do their good will in this part may suffice And let the Brothers beware and their Ministers too that they be not solicitous about the temporal goods of these men that they may freely dispose those things of their own as our Lord shall inspire them And if Counsel be required the Ministers have leave to send them unto some men fearing God by whose advice they may bestow their goods upon the Poor After this they may grant them their vest of probation namely two tunicks without a capuce and a girdle and drawers and a caparoon down to the girdle unless the Ministers shall otherwise think fit according to God After the year of probation is ended let them be received unto obedience promising ever to observe this life and rule And in no wise shall it be lawful for them to go out of this religion according to the command of my Lord our chief Bishop because according to
he does neither § 14. From hence the author proceeds to a new argument fit as he thinks to prove the Church of Romes fanaticisme which indeed so exalts her honour that it proves her the only powerful Judg that does suppress it He tells us then a long and punctual story of some disturbances and heresies that rose about three hundred Years ago in the Christian world who were the chief authors when and where they first appeared how far they spread what tumults they caused what Catholick Doctours opposed them and what Pope at last censured and silenced them And this was the heresy of the Fratricelli Begwini and such like others And he is so exact in his narration that he spends almost forty pages in it thereby to daz'e the Reader and lead him on so far that he may not reflect upon the impertinence of it For heresies will rise and the first uprise of them must needs be amongst some who lived thitherto in the Catholick Church And if they will not hear and be quiet as the rest are they will be censured in the end And this was all the business here But the Doctour twits at the Pope for that he delayed his censure so long still favouring the Fryars amongst whom there were some great sticklers in that madness Surely Sir it is a part not of prudence only but justice too in any judg to hear all parties speak and to defer an extreme sentence till he see where it is most due And sometimes the commotion is so disorderly wild or ambâ—guous that true prudence will doubt whâ—ther punishment be to be inflâ—cted on this or thâ—t side or perhaps on either until aâ— least it appear so seasonable that it may do good But thus I say If theâ—e men â—ere named Almarious Parma Oliva Peter John Geraldus Sagarellus Dulcinus Hermanus and other Fratricelli were fanaticks or their opinions fanaticisme then did the Church justly and prudently so to silence them that they are now no more extant in the world If they were not fanaticks then all the Doctours narration is but a tale of Tom Thumb I can tell the Doctour of another fanaticisme far greater and of more dismal consequence than this which rose up in the Catholick Church but one hundred Years ago begun promoted and spread over half Europe by Martin Luther an Augustin Fryar John Calvin a Priest and as I think a Cannon too Swing in s who I am sure was both Carolstade an arch-deacon in Wittenburg Bucer a Dominican Fryar Lismanin a franciscan Richerius a Carmelite Alciat and David George from Transilvania Valentin Gentile from Italy Castalio from France Peter Martyr and Ochyn from Florence Alasco from Poâ—and Bâ—za from Burgundy Servetus from Spain Melanchton from Germany as if the whole earth had conspired to cast forth her dead unto the infection and ruin of mankind These had been all Catholick hitherto and Catholick Priests too And what dâ—d they now hold forth and what did they pretend and teach a perfect fanaticisme here described by the Doctour and both the waies of it both a new enthusiastick way of Religion and a resisting of authority under pretence of it They would have now no more obedience to their Prelates which is the very essence of fanaticisme no obligation to the religious duties wherein they had hicherto been trained no respect to Church laws or rules of discipline fasts or other observances The best works were sins Restitution superfluous Monasteries and religious retirement superstitious Gods law impossible to be kept No oblation no altar no priesthood any more And such negatives innumerable This was their new religion the maddest that ever was broched upon earth and far short even of Pagan honesty And how did they go on Even with point of pen and force of arms defying and defaming all Superiority upon earth They razed and threw to the ground hundreds of fair Monasteries and Churches filled all Germany where the fanaticisme began with ruins perverted England Ireland Denmark Swethland and all the Islands here abouts and pillaged the whole Kingdoms This fanatick heresy was opposed by all the learned Catholicks in Christendom and censured not by the Pope only but by a general councel of Bishops gathered together round about to apply their helping hands and stop the ruin And yet has this one dangerous infection been yet too strong for all indeavour Other lesser fanaticismes have yielded to the incessant care and vigilance of Catholick Prelates But this of Protâ—stants holds out as yet and so will still till the temptation be removed by the hand of heaven which turns all mens hearts when the Hour is fittest for it § 15. After this the Doctour gives us the story of St. Ignace Founder of the Society So contumeliously related that his conversion to a stricter life by reading the lives of former Saints his backwardness to human literature his patient sufferings and travels to and fro as his pious purposes led him his fasting and meditations the examinations made of his rigorous course of life and various oppositions his gathering Disciples and indeavour to have his rule confirmed by the Supreme Bishop are all made to sound conformably either to Don Quixots Romance or the esteemed madnesses of Quakers who are saith he at least Grand-children to the founder of the Jesuits Truly these Quakers either are or must it seems be thought an odd kind of people They are Benedictins Franciscans Dominicans Jesuits and all within the compass of one Chapter And yet they profess none of all this nor know nothing of it But here Sir you may perceive at least how easy it is to make a pious and serious matter to sound ridiculous or wild by the meer manner of relating it which is a great and necessary caution against the poison of slanderous tongues What Mâ—ffeius Ribbadanira and Orlandius learned Jesuits write seriously of that holy man if not all to his honour yet no part of it to his disparagement this by prophane irony is travested into mockery Thus do Jewes tell the story of our Christianity and its â—oly founder unto their Châ—ldren in such a Stilling fleetian way that they are made to hate and scorn it all their life after But Jesuits have too much gravity and wisdom in them to be laâ—â—ght out of countenance by a triflâ—ng prevaricator Let St. Ignace be as great a fool as St. Francis or yet as great as tâ—is Author can speak him yet can he not deny but he has wise and grave and learned children whose books have helped him many a tâ—me to make up his Sermon When King Saul began to pâ—ophesy the people wondred at it and asked one another Is Saul also among the Prophets unto whom another replyed How came he there Quis est pater cjus who is his father giving the rest therby to understand that his prophesy was not genuin nor likely to be fixt and constant becaus he was not a Prophet of prophets nor had his
things that can be said on both sides hic nunc and ponder them deeply before a judgment can result And it often happens amongst them that they will determin in one year that action to be rejected which was in another time expedient and good only upon change of circumstances It is in my mind a vain labour to write long discourses about probable opinions as some do For if we speak of an opinion in a strict sence an opinion tending to action and yet separated or abstracted from all circumstances of person time place means motives events and connexions with ill or welfare which no writer of a book can see such an opinion is nothing at all in the world but a meer fantosme more apt to mislead then secure any action of life And he that goes to a book to learn there how he is to act in any business he is about goes like one blind man to another blind guide to lead him For this reason all antient good Christians ever had their consciences gâ—ided by living Oracles of men who laying the general rule of religion before them still gave that for safest counsel which all circumstances considered came nearest to the intent and scope of Gospel Truly I cannot but grieve to see men talk so much as they do now adaies about opinions For we are to hold nothing but Gospell and our holy Christian tradition and no opinions at all in religious affaires And if opinions do rise therin as needs they must sometimes by variation of circumstances that is still to be rejected which most swarves from the intent of holy Gospel or which is all one hath least in it of good and most of ill Let not only three men but three millions of men hold any thing to the breach of this rule it is not to be heeded They who write books of moral actions and conscience can know nothing either of the person actually concerned or of the various circumstances which must bring this action into a just existence let them in their abstracted aery problems say what they please nor innumerable events therof although there be some opinions that no circumstance can justify Nor do Catholick Kings and Princes ever heed at all what people talk in their Schools and Academies unless it proceed to action If any do act well he has peace and if any do ill death is at his door however opinions go But of this enough Doctor Still threatens us here with a more accurate examination of these things from the authour who wrote against the Apology for Catholicks I know not who that Authour is But I can tell him thus much that the right honourable Authour of that charitable Apology stands now actually ready with his Pen in hand to entertain him as he hath once already done And that Protestant writer will find him still a main strong Castle not to be blown down or so much as shaken by his impertinent waves All after ages shall make honourable mention of that noble man when his adversary shall be swallowed up in the deep of oblivion Not only Catholicks but many worthy Gentlemen even amongst our Protestant countrymen have grieved in their hearts to see us lie open to so many grievous defamaâ—ions of men But this noble Person ventured to speak and write an Apology for us And if no man should be valorous truth â—ow kept under lock and key for a whole hundred years would never appear as it is and in its own shape § 18. Sir one mistake of mine committed in my first packet wherin I told you that this piece of Fanaticisme was Doctour Stillingfleet's own proper invention I must here revoke For it is not so I wondred indeed that in his arguments against the Church of Rome set down in the begining of his book wherin is mention made of that Churches Idolatry hinderances of a good life and divisions there was not there any one word of Fanaticisme which here fills up a whole chapter in his book compiled as himself speaks in defence of those arguments But I was inlighten'd in this my doubt by a meer chance For meeting with a Protestant Stationer I asked him if he ever heard of an Authour called Foolis or Foulis who is quoted once or twice by Doctour Stillingfleet O quoth he presently Foolis is an asse he printed last year an ecclesiastical history wherein he says that Papish Saints were fanaticks I had the book but threw it out of my shop It is sold now up and down the streets for wast paper I considered then with my self that the Doctour's arguments were made as himself speaks two Years ago this his book in defence of them is but now printed and Foolis his book a Year ago came forth My riddle is now out The Doctour never dreamed of fanaticisme till he learned it of Foolis And yet does he not quote this Foulis in all his Chapter of Fanaticisme though he does in another ambitious it seems to have the honour of the invention ascribed to himself alone Nor is it hard since Foolis his book is become wast paper to find out not the Master only from whom our Doctour learned his lesson of fanaticisme but the very chair also wheron he sat when first he learned it fith bookish men are very apt to peruse the wast paper they are then to use But it was a lucky chance for Doctour Stillingfleet He applied therefore his wast paper and saying in his heart Here is a gallant matter for a whole new Chapter in my book he rose and tied up his breeches ΤΩ ΚΑΘΟΛΙΚΩ DIVISIONS UNto this fifth Chapter I shall speak Sir very little becaus it is wholly parergicall and besides his or what ought to be his purpose A Reader who looks upon his book conceives him to speak of divisions which are contrary to their unity of faith And yet the Doctour by a multitude of stories which make up this chapter exemplifies only and declares divisions that have been in several times and places contrary to the unity of affections in matter of honor wealth and power some in Italy some in France some in England some in America some about their School conceptions some about power and jurisdiction liberty and freedom and the like So that all that has happened in the Catholick world the space of a thousand years contrary to that peace humility love tendernes justice mercy patience prudence which religion requires so much of it as he found related in Catholick authors to his hand is the miscellan hodg podg of this his fifth chapter called Divisions not ever intended by any of those Catholicks authors unto Dr. Still purpose unto which the said stories are wholly improper 1. The story of the wars and differences in Italy nine hundred years ago about Church-lands managed on one side by Charles Martell King Pepin Charlemaign Ludovicus Pius Lotharius and others for the Popes right against Emperours and their Lieftennants on the other And here by
the way we may note that Charlemaign or Charles the great was a notable champion not for the faith only but for the temporals also of the Roman Bishop even to his death which I gave the Doctour notice of when I spoke of the Councel of Frankford and himself now here acknowledges it 2. The story of the quarrels between Henry fourth Emperour and Pope Gregory Hildebrand about an age afterward and the various troubles inferred upon the said Emperour therby 3. The story of P. Vrban and Paschall and others then sitting in the See apostolick and Emperour Rodulphus Lotharius Conradus and the great wars and feuds between them unto the great affliction and misery of mankind 4. The story of the Schismes that happened in the ninth age about the election of Popes wherein successively they deposed contradicted judged and censured one another unto the unexpressable scandall and grief of the whole world And all these above named histories are gathered out of Alphonsus Ciaconus Baronius Luitprandus Morinus Papirius Massonus Onuphrius Sigonius Nauclerus Sigebertus Otto Frisingensis Conradus Rubeus Valesius Sirmondus Sabellicus Blondus Nithardus Hincmar Guicciardin Platina all Catholick historians not one that I know excepted 5. The story of Friars and Monks exemption from Episcopal jurisdiction and the troubles caused thereby amongst the Clergy and the instability of Roman Prelates sometimes confirming and then again recalling those their priviledges This happened in the thirteenth age about four hundred years ago some Doctours defending the said Religious exemptions and priviledges as St. Bonaventure St. Thomas Jacobus Abbas Cluniacensis and some opposing them as Dr. Saint Amour and the University of Paris Armacanus Durandus Mimatensis Petrus de Vineis and Aegidius Romanus 6. The story of two or three Priests here in England about threescore years ago who haveing boarded together at Wisbich with some of the Society very peaceably for a time at last fell out and parted with much scandal and heats one against another 7. The story of Richard Smith Bishop of Calcedon opposed here in England about forty years ago by some religions 8. The story of a bitter contest between some regulars and their bishop in the Philippin Islands and again in Angelopolis in America about twenty years ago 9. The story of the many differences amongst the Schoolmen not to be ended either by Pope or Councels although one of the contradictories must needs be false These are his stories some of them dismal enough and yet all of them I think as true as I am certain they are impertinent And ever and anon the Doctour cries out where is their unity here where is now their infallibility so much talked of whereas indeed the stability of religion and Gods infallible protection of his Church never appeared in greater splendour then it did in those dismal dark times when such as should have been Pastors proved wild beasts rather and wolves to destroy the flock For even in those worst times did the Catholick Church most flourish in unity and Christian piety all over the world And through all these tempests and many more yet greater hath this ship of the Church passed on now almost seventeen hundred years and yet continues To keep it safe and whole not only from outward opposition of Infidels but even from the many inward domestick scandals strong enough to crack asunder the very sides of it and dissipate it into dust is a power and vertue truly divine which can proceed from nothing but Gods great favour and love and blessing upon it We had never heard so much of the power of our Lord Jesus nor known it so well if a tempest had not rose and indangered the ship And all that I think can be judiciously gathered from these many dismal stories and miserable scandals is only this that in all such distresses and ever we are still to trust in God and in the vertue of our Lord Jesus Christ who has promised to be with us even to the worlds consummation And if he be with us we shall be well be what will against us whether it rise within the Church or fall upon it from without The Catholick Church must tast all the trials and temptations which may render her conformable to her Lord and head both from friends and foes And it is enough that he watches over us who never sleeps and suffers no more to befall us then will redound to his own glory in the end But I wonder much how the Doctour amongst the many differences and broils here recorded could omit to relate the differences betwixt the Kings of France and Spain now daily sounding in our ears unto the sad and woful ruin of so many thousand people But he is subtle and thinks perhaps if he should speak of such publick things now in present action that every one would be able to tell him presently that the said discourse is nothing to the purpose for that the said Kings and their whole Kingdoms are all in a perfect unity of their Catholick faith for all that And therefore he judges it a wiser part to hunt farther from home as foxes do where ordinary Readers cannot so easily discern his impertinency If he do speak any thing near our own times it must be the wranglings of some obscure men unknown to us if he relate the differences of greater men they must be such as are far removed off four five nine hundred years ago and then he hopes that his Reader may not so easily discover his fraud For the same reason he omits also to speak of the great wars and differences between the hous of York and Lancaster here in England which brought with them as dismal effects as any here recorded by him as also the Wars of England with France unto the utter depopulation in a manner of that whole Kingdom And yet did their unity of faith stand all the while inyiolable And this truth becaus it is known to every Reader therefore will not the subtle Doctor make any mention of these things But I cannot so well tell why he should omit the story of the Arrian heresy which disturbed not one Kingdom only but all the whole Christian world Europe Asia and Africa so far as the very Sun in the Firmament looked upon it And those differences were indeed about a point of faith which nothing is here in all the differences related by the Doctor Secondly they brought with them unspeakable molestations and damages all the world over far further then these his related differences ever reached Thirdly they lasted four hundred Years whereas most of these his differences were little and light and personal or national and none of them so lasting as the troubles of Arrianism So peevish obstinate and self-will'd are men even against all rules of Christian piety and moderation when concupiscence and passion are once ingaged And yet was that Arrian dispute so quaint and subtile that the world hardly discerns where the difference lay which so much incensed all the Catholick Prelates in the world and set in such a deadly fewd so many great and holy men on both sides who had guided their Flocks before in all tranquillity and peace But what reason soever the Doctour had for his omission of this Arrian heresy which is more pertinent than any of all his stories put together yet might he not me-thinks have utterly forgot the famous and renowned story of Robin Hood who was a noble person and well beloved of his Countrey and yet out-lawed by his King who professed the same Catholick religion with him was forced to confine himself to woods and deserts in much hunger and distress and daily dangers of his life If he had bethought himself well he might have printed here the whole History of England and France Spain and Italy Germany Poland and Greece And it would have made him a fine long chapter Especially if he had inserted all the wranglings and law-suits that have happened amongst Christians in all the said Kingdoms from their first conversion for above a thousand years unto this last age when Protestancy first showed its head But in all that time there is not an Authour upon earth who mentions any wars any wranglings any division of Protestants For neither Cesar nor Pompey however mischievous made any troubles before they were born nor did any writer take notice of those turbulent warriours from the time of Picus first King of the Latines unto their daies which was little less than the same space of time that Protestants were in a deep silence and peace all over the whole Christian world fifteen hundred years I have no more now to say but dear Sir farewell and continue still to love and pray for Your friendly Postillator J. V. C. FINIS