in it or conclusions deduced from it or a hundred such like things introduced by learned and subtile School-men for the sharpning of wits and advancement of learning The Doctor dreams I think that what ever Catholick writers speak is Catholick Faith and consequently that they puzle and are unresolved in Faith where ever they are unresolved which although it be a pittiful piece of Childishness to think yet is not he the only man that rides upon this Hobby-Horse Taylor Poole Moore Hammond Pierse Whitby Owen all of them mount upon the same Steed and one cannot tell which of them is the wisest Faith is before and antecedent Faith is the Revelation of Jesus Christ conveyed unto us by his Church uninterruptedly succeeding from generation to generation Faith is plain and single and equally common to all But School-learning is ambiguous doubtful various intricate invented by men divers and contradictory and a meer stranger in our Christianity which is a thousand years older than it and may in all probability subsist yet a thousand years more after that School-learning is quite vanisht out of the world Are all our Anti-catholick adversaries so blind that they cannot see this It is strange to me that they should not consider that all the said Popish Doctors and their Disciples remain peaceably together in the same profession of Faith all the world over notwithstanding these their clashing Philosophies For how could they otherwise call them all Popish Doctors Faith is one thing and the declarations of it may be many One single truth revealed to us by our Lord and his Church from him may give Philosophical wits occasion to raise up a hundred questions about the modes circumstances and inferences of it And these various conclusions of men both those which declare Faith and those which superadd other new things over and beyond it are Philosophies commonly called theology exposed in the Schools unto the tryal of wits where they are so sure to suffer opposition that not one conclusion in a hundred escapes it So that their puzling about curiosities of their own doth nothing at all concern either faith or faithful men Those that love it let them take their pastime in that puzling work but they do not think to be saved by it And they who never know or hear of it may haply be the better Christians for that but never the worse I believe Jesus our Lord to be present in the Eucharist and worship him there and offer up unto Almighty God all my necessities with Jesus my Lord there figured by his own institution as crucified before us all this my Faith teaches me and all this I do and can do well enough though I never either conceive or consider how his humanity is united how it is present how it terminates our worship all which concerns me nothing Let the curious speculate such like things and be never the wiser but only in a few uncouth words I am satisfied if I do my duty in simplicity and innocency that duty that is before all these speculations one and the same and remains the same after them By a vulgar and familiar example I may haply be better understood The Doctor both sees and walks and sleeps and so do I my self And yet our School-men are puzled and mightily unresolved about all these things how they are done and cannot possibly agree They cannot conclude whether our seeing be wrought by introreception or extramission of raies some say the one way some the other some both They cannot tell assuredly whether vision be effected in the crystaline humour or nerves they agree not what thing this sight or vision is nor how it is conveighed or lodged within for future dreams c. They are unresolved how we think or how the world without us gets so strangely within us or how it lyes there couched or how it circles so wonderfully in our spirits or what physical thing our thinking is whether appearances or only motion and what and where those appearances and what the moover They cannot with any uniformity declare how we walk how the various strings lye for this motion where they are knit together what command impulse or impression sets the members to move and how that impulse is conveâ—ghed and whence it comes and where sits the director paramount whose beck is so uncontroulable that each member does suddainly his duty according to command They could never yet agree in the ways of sleep whence it comes and where it resides what is that thing which so strangely silences all the sences where those spirits retire who keep daily Centinal in those Cinque-Ports and which are their Bed-Chambers what do they when they thus retire and how they rest how they issue next morning each to his own place without any director c. Here School-men puzle here they are unresolved here they dispute and differ But what then Cannot I therefore see nor walk nor think nor sleep No it seems till the School-men resolve say you so Let them never resolve them and I will try whether I can sleep at my time and walk and think and look about me Even just so it is here for the dictates and axioms of Faith were before School-mens doubts and resolutions and will be ever the same what ever they resolve or doubt of § 9. The sence of those words This is my Body is doubted of and interpreted now another way and several disputes arise What have Papists to rely upon sith the Fathers are themselves as fallible as other men neither are they assured that they have any Priests amongst them for to consecrate c. If we can now but save our eyes we are well For we have but two or three motes more to trouble us All is doubtful he says doubtful whether we have any Priests or no doubtful whether we have any certain sence to our words doubtful whether we have any men to make sence of them doubtful whether we have any trust and assurance upon those men And what shall we do now Surely he would have us either do or not do somthing or other but I know not what We cannot heed holy Fathers for they are fallible and doubted men We cannot believe Protestants for they are doubtful men and divided and unsettled in their opinions of this point We cannot regard Dr. Still for he is a doubt-making man and blunders and settles upon nothing and not certain himself according to what he speaks here of Priests out of Chillingworth whether he be a Minister or no or a Clark or a Christian or so much as a Stillingfleet I think we had best keep our selves where we are who doubt nothing at all and leave the Doctor to play at his Blind-man-buff all alone If Infidelities and Cavils of men disputes and difficulties surmised doubts and vain sophismes must annul our Faith then can we not possibly in this world either keep or receive any Faith in God at all And Christ our
conditions of the Angels falling from Heaven like lightning And we are here to observe that whatever grace or vertue our Lord had himself should be dispersed among those who follow him with a true and upright heart for of his fulness we all receive even grace for grace Whence we may well conclude that saint Francis Bennet Romwall Bruno and Dominick were Jesus Christs true servants by the graces and visions they had like himself and not that they were fools and fanaticks except we intend that others more forward men should by the same topick conclude the like of Jesus Christ himself and what I pray you Sir would a prophane Rhetorick what sport would it make upon several words of the Gospel concerning our Lord for example Marc. 3. where it is said of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he was beside himself Is not this in our Doctors english to be a fanatick saint Francis with the rest slighted the world left their patrimonies went poorly attired beaten reviled scoft at by the world Were not all the Apostles such men in a mind piously disposed these things would seem glorious and transcending the power of flesh and blood either to do or suffer constantly through our whole life without some special assistance from Heaven But where God once inhabits he raises above earthly things those holy tabernacles of his now wholly conversant in Heaven And so much indeed as any man hath of God so much is he he like to saint Francis and Bennet to the Prophets and Aposties of our Lord however these may appear to carnal eys contemptuous and vile Flesh and blood left alone seeks ease wealth fulness honour and whatsoever is gustful to our outward sences or more interiour imagination reduced into concupiscence of flesh concupiscence of eyes and pride of life And he that laughs at the lives of St. Bennet or St. Francis and the rest like unto them can have but little of Gods Spirit in him if any thing at all The stile of the holy Ghost concerning such men is Diametrically opposite unto the jeering phrase of Dr. Stilling fleet By faith saith holy Writ Abraham as soon as he was called obeyed to march forth into a place he should inhabite not knowing whither he went By faith he removed towards a land promised him into a strange country and dwelt in tabernacles and so did Isaac and Jacob heirs with him of the same promise For he looked for a City having a foundation whose builder and maker is God Thus speaks the holy Scripture and is not this St. Bennets case as well as Abrahams Did not he thus march forth out of his father house thus dwell in the tabernacles of rocks and caves looking after a City built above in Heaven and both St. Bennet and Abraham did both of them dye in that their faith and never returned again from whence they came Again by faith saith holy Scripture Moses when he was great refused to be called the son of Pharaos daughter choosing rather to suffer adversity with the people of God then to injoy the pleasures of sin for a season preferring rebukes and taunts before the treasures of Egypt Thus did Moses and is it not the same thing which St. Francis did St. Francis preferred rebukes and taunts for Christs sake whom he loved before the pleasure of his fathers house nay to suffer adversity with Gods peculiar people for that name he rejoyced to be disinherited by his own father Moses then and St. Francis were both of them either wise and holy men or a couple of fools Holy Scripture goes on thus others were tortured and racked others mocked and scourged bound and imprisoned stoned and murdered cast out from amongst men and banished walking up and down in Sheeps skins and Goats skins in need and want in tribulation and affliction wandering in wildernesses in mountains dens and caves of the earth of whom the world was not worthy and all these men through faith obtained a good report Thus speaks holy Writ but Dr. Stilling fleet has no good report for them they are all in his phrase and judgment madmen and fanaticks and unworthy of the world whom the holy Ghost judges beloved and divine Heroes of whom the world is not worthy And our great Lord at the sight of these exulted in Spirit and said I confess to thee O Father Lord of Heaven and earth for that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes So O Father because it so seemed good before thee 4. Another thing also did then much run in my thoughts and it is this that all the whole History of our Lords incarnation passion ascention is liable to the same kind of derision here used by this Doctour Nay the whole Gospel and all the precepts and counsels of Christianity together with all its threats and promises are as meer a folly unto a carnal man that will presume â—o sport himself with them as any thing here derided Few of those who live in this present age are ignorant of this Our ears are beaten with such talk familiarly in all places And the bearer does generally but laugh and applaud the wit of this prophane orator For this reason St. Paul to prevent the cavil acknowledges himself a fool aforehand Ye do willingly bear with fools saith he to the inhabitants of Corinth and take me if you please for such another We are all fools in Christ And if any one doth seem to be wise among you let him become a fool too that he may be wise indeed I know saith he again that the word of the cross is but folly unto desperate forlorn men But Gods folly is wiser than mans wit The foolish things of the world these hath God chosen that he may confound the wise and so hath that holy one ordered his ways and counsels that by folly he might save the world which carnal wisdom had undone These and other things to this purpose speaks that holy man And what I pray you Sir is greater folly with carnal men than to pass by injuries insensibly and suffer our selves to be abused in patience to divide our goods among poor people neither of kin to us nor perhaps known to disdain this present life to fly with all caution the delights and pleasures of it to pant and breath after our last hour so to mannage all our affaires as if our Soul were but a pilgrim in our mortal body to meditate daily on our latter end still to abstract our mind from visible and corporeal things ready to fly hence out of this prison unto our God invisible our bodies either slenderly regarded or wholly neglected or perhaps chastised and curbed that liveing here we may express our Lords death and dying obtain part of his resurrection and glory which yet our eye never saw nor ear heard nor can our heart conceive what it is All this which is but evangelical rules and counsels acted by good
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
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
though not intire § 6. But we deny saith he that Divine worship is to be given to the Elements upon the account of a â—â—â—l presence This denial also as the words â—and is good enough For none that I know worship Elements Secondly We deny that the same adoration is to be given out of Communion as in it and this is the only Controversy I had thought he said before that he could worship Christ any where but only in the Eucharist where the corporeal presence determins a worship Now he seems to say that he can worship him in Communion and not out of it and this the only controversie But we must take his grants and danyals singly and not stand to tye them one to another lest we anger our Benefactor What he gives we must take thankfully and not look a gift horse in the month and what he denyes in one page he may grant us in another if we can but have patience § 7. They cannot be sure saith he that the object deserves worship appearing still bread Scripture that saies This is my Body may be otherwise interpreted the sence of the Fathers is hard to find the present Church stands in no stead For is it enough the Pope says it No. If he define it No. If a General Council concur No. Vnless they proceed in a right way and who can be sure of that Now he throws about his Philosophy-dust to perswade us we can be sure of nothing It still appears bread So it does Even Christ our Lord appeared a meer man but the eye of Faith apprehended him the Son of the Living God a Child newly baptized appears but the same it was and yet is believed to be now regenerate and born again all that is in man appears mortal but is not believed so Mulâ—a videntur quae non sunt This divine Majesty hath words of life and power and call the things which are not as those that are and by his naming them makes them to be what he says they are And in those words of life do Caâ—holicks believe and trust when taking bread he solemnly and seriously said at his last hour instituting then an Oblation and Sacrament most soveraigne and venerable to remain in his Church for ever This is my Body and all Christians hitherto have lived and dyed in this Faith Scripture that says This is my Body may be otherwise interpreted Considering they were the last words of our Loving Lord departing from us and his final Legacy bequeathed his believers they cannot be rightly interpreted but as they sound And any other interpretation that has been yet given by any against our Catholick Faith amounts only unto thus much This is not my Body which is a strange mad interpretation The sence of the Fathers is hard to seek saith he But who seeks after it writers of controversies may take pains to cull it out and demonstrate it to unbelievers for their Conversion But Catholicks have their Faith already wherein they are educated and bred up from their youth united to their immediate Pastors as these are to the rest of the Catholick Body The present Church stands in no stead why so that is all in all as the body is to the finger hands and other members in which they all move Is it enough the Pope says it No c. This man here imagins first that Catholicks have their Faith to seek which is his feeble imagination Secondly That Scripture cannot help them for his reason above specified as feeble as it And Thirdly That the present Church can availe as little because the Popes word is not assured as though the Popes word were the present Church And is not all this a strange raving talk All men know I think Sir all men excepting only this spiritual Hâ—ctor that as Catholicks have their Faith and Religion by Tradition from one Generation to another so in it they have ever lived unanimously under their immediate Priests and Pastors united altogether in the great Catholick Body the present Church and never look further Nor is there any need at all either of the Popes word or Councels unless some great sedition or scandalous Apostacy arise in some one or other particular Diocess For then the Bishop of the place calls for help of his fellow Bishops and the supreme Pastor in particular and conciliar Assemblies as Governours extraordinary in a tempest which may indanger the ship And Catholicks thus keeping close together in one body united with their Pastors whom the Holy Ghost hath set over them for their safety and peace cannot but remain steady and immoveable by the assistance and blessing of that Lord who hath promised ever to be with them even to the worlds consummation Nor do they ever seek for their Faith any where for they have it sufficiently already and all their â—are is to conform their lives to it as they ought that they may get Gods good Spirit and his holy operations in themselves which is the end of their Religion and all they do in it And what a pretty peice of ignorance is it in Dr. Stillingfleet to perswade us that they cannot be certain of their Faith who are certain and know themselves certain and declare so much before the face of the Sun and all the eyes of Heaven by their stability fixedness and immovability in Faith even this particular Faith of our Lords presence in the Eucharist so many ages together and such vast distant places not only against the dictamen of their own sences but even against all the violence and subtilty of mankind conspiring to shake all the very nerves and bones of their holy Faith out of joynt Dr. Stilling fleet has more need to consider in Gods fear how Catholicks do arrive to this strange assurance rather than emptily to tell us they cannot be sure § 8. Their own School-men puzle and are unresolved how the whole Humanity can be present how united how terminate a worship c. Here is another handful of his dust his curiosity-dust to lessen our assurance If our School-men puzle and are puzled we must needs be thought unresolved But what do these School-men puzle what are they unresolved in Not in their Faith which says that our Lord is present with us in his holy Eucharist but in the Philosophical Quomodo or how this thing or that thing is And as they cannot disagree in Faith which they received all alike one and the very same so can they not agree in Philosophy which they invent and contrive very divers every one to himself according to his genious and capacity And what is all this unto us believers or to one and another among themselves as they are all Christians even just nothing I say just nothing can the assurance of our Faith be prejudiced by any supervening curiosities of men disputing afterward in their maturer age about the Quomodo of it or the possibility of the contrary to it or the ways of Gods working
Lord must needs then have appeared among us on this our Earth in vain For both himself and all the whole truth he delivered us was in his time and all following ages contradicted round about and opposed and rendred thereby doubtful by Jews and Pagans and no less by those people who Apostatized from that Catholick Society than any other their outward and forrein Adversaries And I suppose the Giantly witts of former ages amongst the Rabbies and Philosophers did with somwhat a more stronger shot from sâ—nce and reason invade our Christian assurance than any is here discharged out of his Elder potgun by our doubt-making Doctor This is uncertain Church is slighted Fathers are otherwise interpreted there are now who deny it c. What news in all this can trouble me who could not but foresee if I did but use my common reason that all these things would happen It is not to be expected that all men should believe at once And he that believes not will both conceive doubtâ— and urge them both hare a believer and persecute him too perhaps to death without any doubt at all These doubts and oppositions and 〈◊〉 raised against Faith can have no other effect in a true believer but to strengthen and spread the roots of it more wide and deeper in his heart There was a notable Propheâ—ie of our Lord uttered by St. Siâ—â—â—on a worthy great Personage at his birth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Jesus is set both for the fall and rising of many in Israel and for a sign to be contradicted Both Christ and his whole Faith delivered by him is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Signe and eminent Trophy set up in the eyes of the whole world by all grumbling unbelievers to be enviously glanced at malitiously traduced and all possible ways opposed and persecuted O but what if this Faith of Papists should prove to be false saith he then cannot Papists be excused from Idolatry as their own learned men acknowledg This is even wondrous true whether our own learned men who are still brought in by him for the imbellishment of his own Clarkship do acknowledg it or no. And so if Jesus Christ himself should prove not to be what he is believed by Catholicks then would the Doctor also who is ready to worship him upon the account of that our Faith declared and maintained by the Catholick Councel of Nice be an Idolator too A false consequence may easily flow from a false and impossible supposition But wise men are more apt to consider their own danger than other mens And the Doctor if he were indeed in earnest and heeded rather his own Salvation then vain glory should rather ask his own soul I should think what if this Catholick Faith should be true Catholicks have for it clear Gospel universal tradition all Christian Churches in the world believing it and that in all ages the Doctor has nothing but his own sence and John Calvin who fell from that Church to plead for him Were not the Manichees censured as Idolaters for worshiping the Sun in the Firmament believing it to be God They well deserved to be censured For that was a fancy of their own grounded upon that word he hath set his Tabernacle in the Sun drawn unto a fond sence by their private interpretation contrary to the Authority of the Church and Pastors whom they would not obey when they checked and reproved them for it Even as now our present Protestants do put their various fanciful interpretations of signe and figure upon the words of Gospel This is my Body which the whole Church of God out of which they fell ever loved and reverenced as the most clear evidence of a Heavenly Legacy the truest and reallest that was ever made to man and of highest concernment to him Only the Maâ—â—chees judged by their erring surmise that our Lords Body was really there where the Church taught them it was not Protestants think it not really there where the same Church teaches them it is And thus have we passed through those handful of doubts which the Dr. casts before our eyes to perswade us we are not sure where he knows we are immoveable And we may worship our Lord in the Eucharist still as we did before for Stillingfleet § 10. The residue of this Chapter bewraies our third Catholick Idol Saints namely and their invocation There be but three or four words in it of substance if a falshood may be said indeed to subsist at all dilated so by his pretty rhetorick as if he had a mind to teach young Lawyers how to plead in a false cause The Heathens saith he were not blamed by Christian Doctors for their ill choice of worship Venus for example or Vulcan who were wretches but for giving divine honour to any but the true God as Papists do Here are two untruths and both notorious ones For neither do Catholicks give divine honour to Saints their fellow Servants and Domesticks of Faith neither is it true that antient Christian Doctors did not blame the Heathens for their ill choyce of worship as monuments yet extant various and weighty monuments do witness both in St. Austins Civitate Dei and elsewhere Wise Heathens worshiped one God supreme heeding the rest as inferiour powers under him as Papists do their Saints These be two more falshoods as is already declared in part For neither are Saints any inferiour powers to help us from themselves as the Sun Moon or Mercury but friends of God in Heaven and welwishers to their Brethren on Earth ready as Onias Job Abraham and Daniel and all the good Angels both to desire and rejoyce at their conversion and peace Neither did the wise Heathens worship one God supreme as St. Paul expresly testifies in his Epistle to the Christians at Rome where he tells them that even the Pagan Philosophers whom Dr. Stilling fleet calls the wiser Heathens held the truth in injustice that they did not glorifie nor worship the supreme God that they became as vain in their thoughts and deeds as any even the unwiser sort of them that pretending to be wise or wiser Heathens they became starke Noddies that they transformed Gods truth discerned even by his works of Creation into a lye and that they worshiped and served the Creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not the Creator I know well enough that Varro with some others of the Heathens about Rome where all sorts of Idols were brought together for the renown and pomp of that conquering City began to plead thus and excuse their Idolatry as the Doctor has learned by him here to do But did St. Austin admit that plea or was there ever any Christian who opposed it not together with all our holy Prophets and Apostles What subordination was there amongst the Egyptian Cyrian and Chaldean Idols or what Country ever was there among the Heathens who looked not upon their own Idol-God as Supreme Papists build Churches to Saints offer Sacrifice
end we say our daily prayers with our hymns and canticles for this end we meditate for this end we fast and chastise our bodies for this we do penance make restitution give alms frequent sacraments and all that we endeavour according to our poor abilities Gods good counsels and holy grace assisting us He who shall please onely to peruse the writings of Dr. Eckius and his fellow Catholicks who opposed Martin Luther and his Protestant-reformation when it first rose up may there clearly see that this interiour sanctity and renovation and holiness of life is the one great Catholick point stoutly maintained against those wild and dissolute Reformers who began now to corrupt the world with that cursed opinion of theirs that faith alone is sufficient to salvation And what a strange man is this Dr. Stillingfleet If any one indeed of our men had objected to Protestants that in their reformation-way neither penance nor contrition nor satisfaction nor renovation of life is needful according to the first Masters of the Reformation who taught and maintained openly and in the eyes of this very Sun that nothing is necessary to salvation but onely to believe and by that naked faith to apply Christs merits to themselves all interiour sanctification being both impossible and needless he had said no more than truth and what he might easily have proved out of the first Reformers principles however I hope not maintained now by many of our wiser Protestants in England who notwithstanding remain still in that reformation which was chalked out for them by such wicked Leaders But now to lay upon Catholicks that wicked doctrine of Reformers opposed now a whole hundred years by our Catholick Divines is a desperate confidence befitting none but men wholly unconscionable Let them keep their own dirt to themselves and not throw it into our faces however they begin now to be weary and ashamed of it The precepts of holiness sobriety and justice are insignificant to them who have hitherto even from the very cradles of this unlucky reformation publickly defended them to be insignificant and not to us who have still maintained that they are the very all in all of Christianity I have troubled my self some while to think what should move Dr. Still to invent this slander Some word or other he must pervert but I cannot conclude what it should be Perhaps he may take occasion from hence that whereas there be several things concurring to our purification after sin as Gods grace and our dislike of our own ill deeds fear of Gods wrath and punishment grief for his love and favour forfeited an humble confession purpose of amendment and renovation of life some Schoolmen have amongst their other curiosities considered into which of these many things may our justification be principally attributed as the principal virtue and cause of it under God For God who created us without our selves will not redeem us without our selves And if any one in his philosophy have said that confession and sorrow have the chiefest influence on our fide that may be enough for Dr. Still to say as here he does that we make confession and contrition all in all and renovation of life nothing Or perhaps because Catholick Doctors have taught that confession together with contrition may sometimes be so great and cordial at the last hour that evil men may thereby find mercy with God as the good thief did although they have no further leasure to mend and renew their lives therefore does this man conclude that with us confession with contrition is sufficient without any more ado Whence soever he concludes or gathers it he knows best himself But this I know that it is an abominable slander And if all his readers were as skilful in our Catholick religion as we our selves who profess it he would not have dared to speak these things despairing then of finding any credit either with man woman or child § 2. They of the Church of Rome need little to heed a good life who can have their sins expiated in Purgatory by the prayers of the living which is a doctrine very pleasing to rich men but uncomfortable to the poor Pretty stuff And need not then any man heed either to have patience in afflictions or do his duty because another prays to God either that he may do so or find mercy if he have done otherwise Or must he needs be negligent of himself to day because he hopes good people will pray for him to morrow when he cannot help himself Souls departed are by our Christianity believed to be now out of the place and way of merit for there is neither art nor industry nor any good work to be done in the grave whether we all hasten And if friends on earth where Gods favour may by our dutiful compliance be obtained do commend their dead to Gods mercy and goodness this surely cannot make those friends careless of themselves while they remain here living All men know that it is not enough for our entrance into heaven to cry Lord Lord which is the voice of those who think that onely faith saves but the will of God who is in heaven is to be fulfilled by every one that shall enter there And yet it is good and pleasing and profitable notwithstanding to cry and supplicate unto our Lord God with all earnestness of heart both for our selves and friends But the poor are then in a sad condition and the rich man may easilier enter into the kingdom of heaven than a camel through a needles eye by procuring Masses for their Souls Who told this man that the Souls of the poor are not prayed for in the Catholick Church He onely thinks so And he thinks amiss therein as he loves to do Whence doth he gather that the rich go to heaven so easily in our esteem by Masses This he thinks too Perhaps he does For I am much deceived if he do not utter many a falshood which he knows to be such before he utters it At least none of ours ever told him the one nor the other and what we believe or do our selves he may easily mistake and we have had already sufficient experience of his ignorance therein or some worser misdemeanor Prayer or whatever good work of Christianity although it may do some good ye◠does it not therefore do all and what does not all good must not therefore be denied to do some Poor Lazarus's may by their cold hunger and nakedness here on earth patiently endured satisfie for their humane frailties so far with God here that after this life having no utmost farthing to account for they may chance not to need any farther help But the rich men of the world will not easily be brought unto those many voluntary penances and mortifications which their sensualities exact unto their expiation and peace with God It were a happy thing if they would be perswaded in their life-time to distribute part of their goods unto
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
spirit from them So may we contrariwise think of this worthy society of Jesuits that such a stable gravity and fixed wisdom as is in them all must needs be derived unto them from the spirit and statutes of their founder That is I think a true moral physiognomy which is given us by the Lyrick poet especially in a continual succession of men Fortes creantur fortibus bonis Est in juvencis est in equis patrum Virtus nec imbelles ferocem Progenerant aquilam columbae But let St. Ignace be never so simple yet did he ever submit unto his Superiours and Pastours walking all his daies in Catholick religion and had his rule of life confirmed by his Prelate and therfore could be no fanatick according to the Doctours definition of it He neither invented any new way of religion nor yet resisted authority under pretence of it But I think the doctour gave us that definition of fanaticisme in the begining of this his Chapter only to keep his discourse far enough off and never to touch it § 16. The Doctour proceeds now to declare how the very Catholick way of devotion doth promote enthusiasme And what think you Sir doth he speak of here not one word of our daily psalms hymns canticles anthems sacred lessons doxologies our Lords prayer or any other devotion prescribed by the Church and almost hourly in the hands and eyes of Catholick people not a word of our examination of our selves upon our knees penitential petitions or other our obsecrations thanksgivings deprecations or interpellations for our selves and all other good Christian people for Kings and prelates and all constituted in authority over us that we may live a peaceable and quiet life with all piety and decent behaviour No mention of all this which he knows as I perceive by his talking of our Manuels and Breviaries to be our Catholick devotion no not one word What is it then he calls the Catholick way of devotion Only one spiritual book set forth by Mr. Cressy about twenty Years ago out of Father Baxers works wherin the Doctour finds some uncouth hard words which he cannot understand this is that which he calls Catholick devotion and this is all the way he shows that Catholick devotion promotes enthusiasme Have not I reason Sir to be weary in following after such a butterfly § 17. He tells us at last That Papists are guilty of resisting authority under pretence of religion which he proves first by the principles of the Jesuitical party which are destructive to government and Secondly by this that the said party are most countenanced in the Court of Rome But he never tells us what are these principles of the Jesuitical party nor what this Jesuitical party is He only names Mariana and one or two others who should say that a Prince excommunicated loses his Soveraignty For which boldness they suffered worthily both by their own body and others Now how this discourse of our Doctour agrees with his purpose all this while pretended here I cannot see For it has not so much as the colour which appeared in some sort hitherto His book is intitled A Discourse of the idolatrous fanaticisme of the Church of Rome but now he tells us of a Jesuitical party and the Court of Rome The Society of Jesuits a religious grave prudent family in the Catholick Church of God this I have heard of and the Church of Rome or Catholick Church I know But what is this Jesuitical party and what this Court of Rome I understand not at all The Doctour pretended to speak of the Church and her religion though indeed he hath never come neer it yet But now he speaks that which hath not so much as the sound of it A Jesuitical party and a Court what are these to our purpose now in hand There be parties and as many designs signs as there be men in this world although they should be all of one religion and not all of them nay not perhaps one in a thousand directed according to Gospel or right reason at all times but for avarice rather solicitude of this world or sensuality Who can mend this Or whose part is it to justify such things No man that defends a religion can conceive how they may concern him and he that opposes a religion if he were wise or honest would never object them And as for the Court of Rome I know no more of it then I do of the Court of France Spain or Constantinople I have long since been told that the designs of Courts and Courtiers are politick high ambitious and close And I have heard again that they are of one and the same opinion all over the face of the earth a high elevated secret mysterious way unknown to us peasants who are born in sin although it go under the name still of that rurall religion which is countenanced in their respective Kingdoms How true these things be and what this way of theirs is I know not nor do I love to speak of them at all One part of our duty I think and respect towards our Superiours is silence and not to speak at all of them For we may conclude that God subjected all other Creatures unâ—o man becaus he created them dumb And certainly enough may we imagine that the opinions of Courts and Courtiers are very high since one can hardly meet any ordinary man who would not have the whole earth under his command and power if he could get it It is not long since we had here threescore thousand of our own Protestant Countrymen armed in the field who held all of them an opinion that the Kings Crown was at their disposal So they wrote so they talked and so they acted And it is hard to say in what head are the most presumptuous ambitious and lofty opinions And our Doctour himself who so contemptuously treats King Pepin Charlemaign and other renowned Kings of the earth nay all the Catholicks in the world at once cannot be one of the humblest and modestest of men Court of Rome and Jesuitical party sounds in my ears like a thorough Bass and treble Violyn playing together the one strikeing three long humming Notes about the double Gamut the other descanting theron in short and quicker graces The Court of Rome I something perceive methinks what it should be but not what it is But the Jesuitical party with all its graces I neither know what it is nor what it should be That worthy Society of Jesuits may be considered either according to their religion or Schools or personal designs According to their religion they are as other Catholicks be in the same worship same Sacraments same Altar same Priesthood same faith same hope to come As to their Schools although they have I believe five hundred Readers of the Chair and perhaps as many publick defensions in every three years space yet did I never hear of any such thing either taught or defended in their Schools which