enable them towards any manner of work let us see what the consecrating of this Matter and Form can do For if this last can do little or nothing in order to those great and extraordinary Operations which are attributed to Roman Images you must needs seek farther for some other both as great and extraordinary Principles The Consecrating of Images as the Roman Church practises it may be considered either as a Praier or as an ordinary or extraordinary Power If you take it as a Praier 1. What Ground of faith have they for venturing upon such Praiers and what Promise Precept or Precedent for Blessing Images in hope of being afterwards blessed by them 2. With what Christian and sober modesty can they wish and devise Instruments which no holy man or Scripture ever thought of to put both God upon hearing or his Saints upon mediating and promoting what we shall pray for before Images 3. And as to more special Blessings which are lookt for at the devout using of these Engines what silly fancy is this to call upon God for making wood stone or any other materials that Images are commonly made of after they have shaped it after their own way happy and powerful Instruments to keep houses and Vineyards to keep off Hail and Devils to give women an easie labor to procure good Husbands to Maidens or to kill them who are not so For I am sure many Images are renowned and sought after for such Blessings 4. But what horrible Boldness is this to conjure God in these consecrating Praiers thro his holy Names and Titles in behalf of such strange Purposes so far against the ordinary Course of his Providence and farther beyond his Promises And what Returns can they expect of such faithless sinful Praiers but Vanity and if something else but Gods wrath and their own Confusion If you take this Consecration as a Power I pray when and where appears it that God ever bestowed this Power either on his or the Popes Church Christ in the first times of the Church invested both his Apostles and other Servants with many great and extraordinary Gifts for casting out Devils for curing all sorts of Diseases for removing even Mountains but where either for enabling Images or for the doing either good or harm with Images They bestowed the Gifts of the Holy Ghost very often and as it were of course upon Believers at their Baptism but when and where upon Marbles or curiously wrought Pieces of Timber at their Consecration Where and when did they consecrate Pictures to sink Ships to rout Armies to raise storms and thunders and Hails as Roman Images will do sometimes When the blessed Apostles with the laying on of their hands could endue other men besides themselves with miraculous Power from above in order to prophesying and speaking Mysteries in strange Languages did they endue carved stones also with power to speak and to play to sing or weep and to do all those handsom Feats which are said of Roman Images Did ever S. Peter leave this Power with Simon Magus or the Pope or any consecrating Bishop that on what statue or Picture soever he should lay his hand and sprinkle water and pour Oil and burn Frankincense it should be forthwith elevated to high and mighty Performances If Peter and Paul had this Power and left it to succession God and his Saints must look to it for as Christ is at every turn liable by Consecration to be shut up in a Mass wafer God and his Saints are not quite free from consecrated Shapes and Images For the Consecration as a Power obliges God in a considerable manner to hear and report to his Saints whatsoever is praied for at their Images and ties as considerably the Saints to sollicite and intercede with God for the Request which he reports and often to come down themselves to execute and dispatch it God is bound I say by this consecrating Power which he is supposed to grant both he to hear and to report what is said before the Image for otherwise how could the Saints concerned in the Case understand it and what were the Power good for And the Saint is put to so much trouble For besides the trouble of solliciting the business which they understand they are praied for at their consecated Images how many Ramblings to and fro are they in equity obliged to unless all their Apparitions and Activities about their Images be mere Lies either to hear it the sooner or to give it a quicker dispatch And who knows not that Roman Images and Roman Saints in famous Churches especially are never or seldom asunder I call to witness all the long and holy Pilgrimages undertaken upon this score to Lauretta to Montserrat to S. Michael c. there purposely to meet either with the respective Saints or their assisting Vertue Divorum Divarum Numen that is the Godhead of the He or She Saint which is supposed to watch somewhere in or about his dear Image I call to witness the many Vows which are directed from all parts to these said Saints not in Heaven their proper Abode as one should think but to the Lady at Lauretta or Montaigue or to the good Saint at Padua Ardilliers Montegardia c. there helping men and women by their Images in such Churches And it is to this purpose that both these Images and Churches are consecrated with the greatest Pomp washt with the best sort of Holy water made sweet with the choicest Perfumes lighted day and night with the clearest Lamps and Candles dressed with the costliest Clothes and Laces served with the Curiousest Music the Images specially seated on the Eminentest Places of the Church and what would you have more honor'd with the compleatest Mass to invite thither out of Heaven these Holy guests And let Rome search out her Vatican and try whether in all Antiquity she can find an honest Example for such Consecrations and Attractives but either among old heathenish Priests or among old and new Sorcerers Now tho by this which I have said it appears clearly enough that the Matter the Form the Likeness the Power of Consecration or any thing else which you can find intrinsecal to an Image is both uneffectual and unchristian both as to make it a fit Object for any Religious service or to make it a sufficient Cause of any wonderful Blessing Nevertheless it is found by experience and however it is most certain in the common Apprehension of Roman Catholics that a very great number of Images by being consecrated and worshipped have attained to such a great degree and improvement of strength and Action above what either they are in their Nature or can be raised to by Art that it highly concerns all Christians seriously to inquire into the hidden Causes and Principles of such Extraordinary Atchievements For my part I do not believe and many Papists do not that all and every particular thing commonly reported of these Roman Images is
daies at Rome did really the greatest Cures these would assert S. Peter and S. Pauls Epistles which the Papists now contradict in many Points and not the Popes Roial Power nor the Roman Purgatory nor the works of congruity condignity or supererogation nor any other like Doctrines which are contradicted by these Epistles But if you meet as oft you may with another sort of Miracles which what way soever you turn them do not look towards any Doctrine delivered by Christ or his Apostles these can be none of those we may be sure which S. Mark calls following Miracles such as are properly the Christian ones They may be from God nevertheless and true and good and thankfully to be accepted as the Providential Miracles are But if they look or go plainly a quite cross or contrary way be sure they are Antichristian and are designed either to sow or to improve some other Seed then was at the first Sown by Christs Preaching and cultivated by his Miracles And such were those true Prophecies which Moses bids us to take heed of Deuter. 13.1 to draw Israel after strange Gods such were the many Signs and wonders which Jansenius Bishop of Gant affirms l Cornel. Jansen Conc. Evang. c. 123. to have bin don in his time to seduce men after a false Christ Nor matters it that these Miracles seem not much less then those first were wherewith the Gospel was confirmed For the Beast can perform great wonders Revel 13.13 Devils by Gods permission come very neer that which good Angels attain unto by Gods Command and tho there are many Miracles beyond the reach of good and bad Angels as for instance the Reviving of dead Bodies c. Yet there are none but by some illusion or other may be so exactly counterfeited that tho they have no Reality yet will they have as much appearance to confirm Lies as the other have to confirm the Truth Hence comes in these last times when the Devil hath no restraint to keep him from making the utmost use of his Power the absolute impossibility of discerning those from these any other way then by the end which they aim at to wit the reveled will of God and the manifestation of his Truth There are some of the Devils Miracles * August de Civit. l. 10. c. 16. saies S. Austin that as to the work it self seem not to be lesser then Gods are but their End must distinguish them And therefore he will have the Miracles of later times to be tried by the true Church †Idem de Vnitat Eccles c. 19. as we find it in the Scriptures and not the Church by these Miracles Bring Roman Miracles to this Rule you may divide them into three Ranks for some of them are but mere Tales some are counterfeit Impostures and artificial tricks of Juglers others have a real Being but the question is Whence they have it As for the first sort of Miracles the Papists have by little and little heaped them to such an Extravagancy that divers of their communion who have some modesty left them can scarce forbear blushing m Melch. Canus Loc. l. 11. c. 6. at their relation Gregory of Tours and Gregory the first Bishop of Rome if the four Books of Dialogues be truly his did begin pretty well to tell stories But it is nothing to the advances made by some other Prelats and great Roman Doctors in the following Ages And I may say confidently that these Romanists are not much short of the most extravagant Romancers There you shall read of Constantine the great being a Leper and transferring his Roman Empire upon that Pope that made him clean of Wolves and Lions bringing back Lambs and restoring them out of their Entrails after they had torn them to pieces of Birds flocking about to hear Sermons and of Asses becoming Roman Catholics at least kneeling to adore the Mass-Sacrament c. They cannot conceive any great Man to be a Saint unless he hath an extraordinary Gift for the working of such Miracles How true they be you may best learn of the very Saints who deny them as for Example n Bernard Serm de Benedict Berard o S. Chrysost passim St. Chrysostom and p S. Gregory Hom. 29. in Evang. St. Gregory and yet they are forced upon them and you can hardly pass for a true Catholic unless you believe that St. Bernard q Chronic. Deip. an 1152. was saluted and suckled several times by our Lady in her Image that r Simeon Metaph. in vita Chrysost Sigeb an 606. St. Chrysostom did raise the dead did cure all sorts of incurable Diseases and had every night St. Paul himself whispering continually in his Ears what he did write on his Epistles And as to St. Gregory the Great he had no meaner Whisperer r Simeon Metaph. in vita Chrysost Sigeb an 606. then the Holy Ghost in Person under the shape of a Pigeon sitting quietly upon his Head and sometimes stretching down her Bill s Petrus apud Vossium de Historic Lat. l. 2. c. 23. into his Mouth when he was Preaching And we know that the grand Impostor Mahomet pretended somwhat the alike about the same time Now you may be sure all this is merely Fabulous since it is disown'd by the very Men who are pretended to have had it who therefore knew best the truth of all these Works and Assistances Much like to these are the Miracles and Revelations of Ignatius Loyola when he cures Women in their Travel if you but set his Seal t Valderama Serm. de Canon Ignat. or Signet on their Belly when he makes u Ibid. pag. 10. the House where he happens to be horribly shake and when himself grows as hot and as terrible as Mount Aetna by the fierce motion of that Spirit which from a debauch'd Soldier made him a Holy Jesuit or when he sees the Soul of his deerest Friend Hosius x Ribadaneira in vita Ignat. mounting up into the sky far more gorgeous then the Soul of any other or when he works greater Miracles with his own name in a little piece of Paper y Valderama ut sup p. 51. Cum nomine suo Chartae inscripto then Moses and the Apostles did in Gods Name We cannot deny saies the Bishop of Canaries but somtimes very grave Men write and leave to posterity such reports about Saints Miracles humoring hereby both themselves and the People whom they perceive both prone to believe and importunate to have them do so There is a second sort of Roman Miracles which are somewhat but have it all from Artifice and Imposture Pope Boniface in this matter once behaved himself like a Man when thro a Pipe or Sarbatane he conveied so dexterously this a Platina Bonifac. 3. Bergom Supplem l. 13. in vita Bonif. Oracle Celèstin get thee away if thou hast a mind to be saved that Pope Celestin took it it seems
had in her Breast turned into Oil wherewith she did anoint her sores and somtimes also she used it as Butter to sweeten her Bread Cardinals and whole Towns besides can aver these Extravagancies and make therewith the first kind of Roman Miracles A second Evidence against Roman Miracles is their looking quite another way and their being design'd for the confirmation of quite different Doctrines then ancient Miracles were The last Primitive Christian Miracles being wrought for the most part at the Graves of Holy Martyrs never confirmed more then this Truth That the Death the Souls and the very Ashes of those Saints were precious before the Lord and therefore that the Christian Faith which they had believed taught and died for was very true So it remained only to enquire what this Faith was and what kind of Doctrine St. Stephen and other Martyrs believed and Preach'd for nothing else but this can be asserted by their Miracles What is it saith St. Augustin g Aug de Civit. l. 22. c 9. that these Miracles will attest but the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ The Holy Apostles being alive never confirmed by their Miracles but what they taught and what they taught St. Paul tells you is concluded within the Law and the Prophets You may be sure it went no farther then what you find in Christs Gospel This is that Faith which once and but once being delivered to the Saints was carried thro all Nations and thus made Catholic by the Almighty Breath of God and there setled by his Almighty Hand and the Miracles that followed it Mark 16.20 So at this very day tho all sorts of Operations were continually seen at the Sepulcher of S. Paul at Rome they would rather confirm his Epistles then the Popes Bulls As for Roman Miracles they do follow likewise Roman Doctrines which sometimes are quite contrary to and alwaies quite different from the true Christian Gospel They would be huge books that could contain all the Revelations and strange Wonders that encourage Men in general to the worship of the Virgin Mary As many more are bestowed upon the doing it by special waies and at special Feasts for what else mean those swarms of Monks who lie hid h S. Anton. 3. part Hist. t. 23. c. 3. sect 1. under her Coat or those Ladders whited with her Milk i Chronic. Deip. an 1231. from which no body taking that way to go up to Heaven can tumble down or those Quires of k Histor. Carnat an 1116. Angels heard in the bottom of a deep Well to sing her Praises What can you make of those Images that l Archiv Buburg in Frand an 1383. bleed or m Menol. Cisterc 28. April speak or fly as light n Leand. in vita Hyacinthi ap Sur. 16. August as Feathers unless they serve to bring Mankind to the worshipping of Wood and Stone What aile those thousands of sad Souls to ramble up and down the whole World since the times of Pope Gregory but to revele Purgatory and to recommend Masses for the dead How many strange Feats have bin wrought by the hands of S. Dominic and S. Francis to no better end then to confirm the new Orders and waies of these Saints All those heaps of Excommunicated p Specul Exemp Tit. Excommunicatio Exemp 5. Flies and that q Ibid. Exemp 4. poor Raven pining to death under the same Fate for having fled away with a Bishops Ring What else can they signifie but the terror of the Roman Keies What shall I say of those both small and huge great Toads crawling r Ibid. Tit. Confessio Exempl 22. out and into Mens mouths when they do observe ill or well the Rules of Auricular Confession or of the many little Children s Ibid. Tit. Eucharistia standing upon Consecrated Wafers there purposely to justifie the real Transubstantiation at Mass or of the many Cures wrought every where partly in the behalf t S. Bonav in vit Franc. of the five Wounds which St. Francis had in his Body or of the Rope he did wear about his Loins And since we are about this great Saint tell me what you think of this Miracle †Hieron Platus de Bono statu Relig. l. 5. c. 33. A Bishop moved with Passion against a Convent of Franciscans had resolved to turn them out of his City and was to do it the next day the Night before behold their Sacrist sees in a Vision the Image of St. Paul and the Image of St. Francis both painted in the Church Window talking earnestly one with the other He hears St. Paul extremely blaming St. Francis o Gregor in Dialog passim for no better defending his own Order and St. Francis answering to him What shall I do saies he I have but a Cross and that is no defensive Weapon but had I a Sword as you have for commonly they represent them so perhaps I might do somewhat more The man being awak'd starts off his Bed and his Imagination being full of this runs to the Church finds the two Pictures had exchang'd their Arms Paul in the Window had the Cross and St. Francis had the Sword This amaz'd the whole Convent but that which is more then all the rest St. Francis had not St. Pauls Sword in vain for that same night the Bishop had his Throat cut What Evangelical Doctrine can be confirm'd by these three Wonders Pictures that can speak and move St. Paul that exhorts to revenge and a Saint who during his Life made conscience as they say to kill a Louse now can cut his Bishops Throat What I say can you make of this unless it be this wholesome Doctrine That Bishops are not Jure Divino but Fryers are All these and whole Millions of other such Roman Miracles are not fit for Christs Kalender because they never were fitted for perswading Men of the truth of Christs Gospel and therefore upon that account must needs proceed from any other then Christs Spirit The third foul mark of Roman Miracles is that besides their unchristian ends they happen in such suspicious times as may discredit the best that are The Gift of Miracles being to Teachers what both Credential Letters and Roial Colors are to public Officers which signifie much with good Subjects whilst they know them granted to none but such as the King doth really send but very little after they see those in the hands these on the backs of every dirty Carrier who hath a mind for his own ends to counterfeit them and rant with them No wise man takes for good paiment whatsoever hath Cesars Image after he hears of false Coiners who have dispersed vast sums abroad and marked them with the same Stamp We are not now in the privileged daies either of Moses or Elias or Jesus Christ or his Apostles when neither all the Magicians could make one Louse nor all the Baalims could light Fire on one Altar nor all
Soul thirst after her and do not leave her till she hath blessed thee Let thy mouth be filled with her praise and sing of her greatness all the day long That of the same Moses at the red Sea Exod. 15. Let us sing to our glorious Lady the Virgin Mary Our Lady is Almighty Her name is next to God She hath thrown into the Sea the Chariots of Pharaoh his Host c. O Lady thou hast delivered my Soul from the Lion O my dearest Lady cover thou me as a Hen doth c. I am all thine and all I have is thine I will put thee as a signet upon my heart c. That of Isaiah 12. I will sing to thee O Lady c. for thou hast comforted me my Lady is my Savior I will trust in thee and will not fear Thou art my strength in the Lord and art become my Salvation with joy will I draw Waters out of thy brook and I will call upon thy name alwaies c. That of King Hezekias in the same Prophet 38.9 when he was recovered from his mortal Disease I said in the midst of my daies I will go to Mary c. Father Mother and Friends did forsake me but Mary hath holden me up I will put my trust in her in the morning in the evening and at noon-day God had as it were a Lion broken my bones but thou our Lady hast delivered my Soul from perishing my Darling from the hand of the Dog c. That of the three Children commonly so called All the works of the Lord bless our Lady praise and magnifie her for ever O ye Angels bless our Lady c. Blessed be thou O Crown of Kings Let every knee in Heaven in Earth and in Hell bow unto thy Name c. That of Zachary Luke 1.38 Blessed be thou Lady Mother c. Save us from all our Enemies c. and perform the Mercy promised to our Fathers and us that we being delivered out of the hands of our Enemies may serve thee without fear c. And thou Mary shalt be called the Prophetess of the Highest by whom he hath given the knowledg of Salvation c. By the Bowels of thy Mercy O Morning Star do thou visit us from on high To complete Idolatry with absurdity that very Hymn wherewith she adored once her God is with some parcels of the Song of Annah 1 Sam. 2. now turned into an Office to adore her My Soul doth magnifie the Lord and my spirit hath rejoiced in my Lady c. There is no Saint like our Lady c. Let Sion and Jerusalem rejoice and praise Mary for she is the greatest among the Ladies of Israel She makes poor and she makes rich She brings low and she lifts up on high This Lady of ours is higher then the Heavens broader then the Earth and purer then the very Stars 6. Sixthly She is adored with the most solemn and elevated Office that the ancient Church could worship God with namely Te Deum We praise thee O Mary we a Melch. Inchofern Ep. B.M. ad finem acknowledg thee to be the Lady All the Earth doth worship thee as the Spouse of the everlasting Father To thee all Angels c. continually do cry Holy holy holy Mary the Mother of God The holy Church thro out all the world doth acknowledg thee Mother of an Infinite Majesty Thou art the Queen of Glory O Mary the Ark of Grace and the Ladder of Heaven Thou art the hope of all the world the Salvation of them that call on thee the Teacheress of the Apostles the strength of the Martyrs c. O Lady save thy People c. Vouchsafe O Lady to keep us this day and for ever O Lady have mercy upon us have mercy upon us O Lady let thy mercy lighten upon us as our trust in thee c. Lastly there is added to her Honor that Praier which belongs to the Holy Ghost Veni Creator and which some say the Council of Constance at their meeting were pleased to present the Virgin with Come Mother of Grace Spring of Mercy Light of the Church Queen Star c. come to defend the Church to destroy Heresie and to make peace c. And in a word to do any thing that an honest and pious Council may better expect of the holy Ghost 7. Seventhly There is a whole Bible made and Printed to her Honor Biblia Mariae Albertus Magnus both a great Scholar and a great Bishop and a kind of Roman Saint is the Prophet who as it is thought composed it This Holy Book gives the Virgin all or b Biblia Mariae Tit. Pag. Omnia fere most part of what was in the true Bible either said or intended for God and Christ As for Example in Genesis She is the truth both of the Altar which Noah built and of the Sacrifice which he offered and the Sweet savor which there was smelled is nothing else then her Praier She is the Ladder which Jacob saw Gen. 28. wherewith Christ is to come down to us and we are to come up to him In Exodus she is said to be both the true Mercy-seat and the great Altar of Burnt-offerings In Leviticus and Numbers she is the Ark of the Covenant the Rock whence flow the Waters of Grace and the Star which Balaam saw c. In Joshuah she is the Border of our Heavenly Inheritance the Window through which we must escape and be saved from Jericho that is from perishing in and with the World the Ark which marches before us to Canaan that is Heaven there to prepare us a resting place the City of Refuge where those must seek shelter whosoever flee from the Wrath of God c. In the Book of Judges she is the true and great Captain in whose hand our Celestial Father puts the whole Land Heaven all Power and Himself Therefore take heed saies this Godly Bible from going to war without her In Ruth she is the true Ruth with more probability then the Captain who goes to the Field that is the Church there to glean ears of corn left in the Field by the Reapers that is some few which she rescues from Devils Thus she gleans whomsoever she pleases for Boaz hath charged the reaping Angels not to to touch her Ruth 2.9.15 16. When she hath gleaned them she takes them up into the Bosom of her Mercy and carries them into the City v. 8. that is into the Celestial Jerusalem In the 1. Kings 1.2 3. She is the fair and young Virgin who is to lie in the Kings or Gods Bosom and inflames him to love and compassion towards his People Thus this Bible running all along to the Revelation after this rate at last ends with this Praier instead of the Grace of our Lord c. O Queen of Mercy Grace and Glory Emperess of all the Creatures blot out all my Transgressions and lead me to the life everlasting 8. The Virgin
Essential Article of the Christian Faith yet all of their own accord especially upon certain daies will throng both to see and to worship St. Paul's Head or St. Peter's Tooth And without any great teaching Men learn presently any where what most Israelites learn'd in Egypt when they care little for God or for Moses whom they see not they will gape and run lustily after the Calf or any thing which they can see Thus evidently Let us make Gods to go before us is the most corrupt natural wish and the most universal Religion of all Mankind To this purpose the Holy Fathers have observed this Enchantment in Images that the very Men that should best know what stuff these Idols are made of yet will stand in some a S. August Epist. 49. Quaest. 3. awe of them when they see them bravely seated over the Heads of a multitude and that either such is the Charm of these dead figures b Idem in Psal 113. Conc. 2. to make Mens Souls stoop unto them or the natural weakness of Men to let themselves stoop to these shapes that the very Men who see the Sun and believe it to be their God will turn c Ibidem their back to their own God and turn their Face to his Image The truth is carnal Worshippers such as naturally all Men are are all for present carnal Objects and if these have also human shapes in St. Augustins Judgment this likeness becomes to them so great a Charm that as the same Father observes Men shall not be discouraged from following after Images by seeing them both Deaf Blind and Dumb but will take them for friendly Gods because they see them have Ears Eyes and Mouths Whatever this Reason be worth this Experience is most certain that the People of God excepted all the World besides hath bin drawn to their respective Religions by the help of these gross Images and if by chance any Temple or Nation happened to have none that is observed by most Historians as extraordinary and singular All the Provinces of China however full as they say of Teachers who think of God much above all what an Image can represent yet never draw up their Train'd Bands to any Religious solemn purpose but still march with such Standards and the true Israel of God and the Primitive Church of Christ are the only two Societies that both had not and detested Image Worship Not to speak of the Israelites according to the Flesh of which there is no question the Church of Christ as well at Rome as every where else hath for above six hundred Years after her first Institution best lived and best served her Savior without Images as to any Worshipping account If there were Images at all to be seen among Christians during the three first and most Virgin Centuries they were either kept useless in private hands or used by the Followers of Simon the d Iren. l. 1. c. 23. Magician Carpocrates e Ibid. c. 24. and such Infamous Heretics and if by any Christians it was by such weak Superstitious ones as in S. Augustins f Augustin de Consens Evangel l. 1. c. 9. Judgment deserved well to be deceived for their offering to learn Christian and Apostolical Faith from painted Walls When first Images crept into Churches which was about the sixth Century it was on a civil account either as Ornaments of Christian Temples or as Memorials of Holy Stories Pope Gregory the first and the first Patron of Images * Gregorins Magn. supr never pleaded farther then this against Serenus for his Clients which stood 200 Years in this posture till the second Nicene Council with much opposition and more scandal advanced them a step higher Then soon after came the ninth Century noted by all for the worst the saddest and the ignorantest Age of the Church which drowned the Gospel with Popery and which as their best Authors g Baronius an 900. n. 1. confess began in good earnest to set up the Abominable Desolation foretold by Dan. 9. in the Roman Church And so Images had a fair opportunity to come in when both the Holy Scriptures were kept unknown under the Bushel of Ignorance and when all other things were managed by new Revelations and new Miracles Here I do not undertake to shew how far Roman Images lead worshippers into the way of plain Pagan Idolatry since able men have done it before But what is proper to my purpose and is not so generally known I will insist 1. upon their Roman Original Secondly upon their use among Papists Thirdly and most principally upon what good or bad accounts Roman Images are grown so lovely and so taking 1. First as to the Original of Roman Images it imitates that of Roman Relics So the Papists have them two waies for some are made by the Roman Church others have an unknown Extraction as being supposed either made by some Saint or brought down from Heaven by Angels or however found out one way or other by some extraordinary Providence The Images made by the Roman Church are made this way the Carpenter cuts down a Tree or the Mason digs out a Stone then a Carver works this Stone or Tree into an Image and the mass-Mass-Bishop consecrates both into a Saint or a Virgin or a Crucifix In the joint labor and concurrence of these three Craftsmen the first finds the Materials the second adds the shape and Figure and the third that is the Mass Bishop puts in the Essential form the very Soul and by his powerful Consecration introduces it into the Body of the Image in this manner When the Church wants a Crucifix the Bishop puts off his Miter and in a pretty long Office declares or explains to God what he would have that is what it is that he hath a mind to set up namely Singulare Signum a Pontifical Rom. sect De Benedict Nov. Crucis a special Standard which by a special Blessing may be a saving help to Mankind a supporter to Faith a Means of Proficiency in good works a Redeeming Instrument for Souls and both in the Town and in the Field a protecting Shelter against all Enemies whensoever a good Catholic shall come and humbly kneel before it If the Crucifix be made of some better matter then common Wood as of some fine Stone Brass or Silver it is intended and praied for that by the Merits of this Crucifix all devout Worshippers may be cleansed from all their sins as the world was by the Holiness of Christs Cross In order to these great Designs the Bishop makes use of Holy Water not such ordinary holy water as Mass Priests make every Sunday for every body to keep off Devils and Diseases nor such tho nobler as is used at every Christening of Children but that noblest sort of holy water which a Pope b Layman l. 5. tractâ—t 9. c. 13. n. 12. or a Bishop only can make to consecrate
Representatives they would be served at a distance Can any Papist shew that the Virgin ever cared more for Images then God doth who abhors them And should we not suspect those Saints if by chance were found any such who had any love for that worship which in all the times of true Saints none but Devils were pleased with And if for any thing that we can certainly tell the Saints of God are altogether strangers to Images why should we think Image-worship to be so dear and so Charming a Service to Saints and therefore when the Mass Bishop praies and believes after his Praier that all Blessings may and do light on them who bow or kneel before an Image or a Crucifix can he not pray and believe as well that they may and do light on them who to the great honor of those Saints either whip a Top about a Room or drink claret in a Tavern Since these last waies of Worshipping are not more destitute of Gods word and Institution then those and those more unlawful and more expressly forbidden in all holy writings then these And so much of the first known Original of made and consecrated Images 2. There is a second sort of Roman Images which need no Consecration being as it is thought sufficiently consecrated either by the hand that made them or by some other extraordinary Extraction Such are 1. That Image which Christ as they say made of himself when King Abagarus sent him a letter and a Painter h Joh Damase De Fide Orthod l. 4. c. De Imaginib who being not able to look Him in the Face much less to draw well his Picture because of the Glorious light which dazled his Eies Christ saies the Romancer took his own Cloak and by applying it to his Face took a perfect Copy of it and sent it to Abagarus But long before Images were used in the Roman Church Pope Gelasius accounting this pretended i Gelas Conc. Rom. Decret de Libris Apocryph letter to be false it is much the story of the Painter and of the Picture can be true 2. You have another Image of the same worth and of the same Impression which Christ as they say gave to Berenice called otherwise Veronica The story goes that this woman gave a Handkerchief wherewith he wiped off the Sweat and Blood which was on his Face and thus his Resemblance stuck to the Cloth and it is this which at this day is both so solemnly shewed and so devoutly adored at Rome and you have to this purpose the whole legend k Baron An. 34. n. 139. carefully kept in the Vatican 3. To these may be added that wonderful Image which they call l Caes Raspon l. 4. c. 19. made without hand which Catholics keep and adore at Rome in the Chappel of S. Laurence 4. All those Images which of late times are supposed to have bin either made by God himself or however brought down by his Angels Witness that fine Picture of the Virgin m Balinghem Calend. B. M. 27. Maii. wrought curiously in a Saphir stone with her Baby on her left Arm which Pope John saw first in the Skie and then all the Bells of the Town rung of themselves while the Angels put it in his hand Witness another brave Image which two French-men being in Prison found in n Chronic. Deip. an 1100. a night made to their hand when the evening before they were thinking how to make one Witness that other more glorious one at Tungres o Pyraeus Tripl Coron Tract 1. c. 12. which the Angels left in a Garden If you ask what good it did there they will tell you how coming down it turned the Night into a bright day and cured the Earl who owned the Ground where it was left from an inveterate blindness Witness that other Miraculous Image near Florence which the p Archang Gian de Initio Ordin Servitarum Painter thinking to make found in the Morning made to his hand and to all the Worlds amazement 5. All the Images which at this day are believed to have bin made by St. Lukes hand both of our * Lord and our Lady and given q Sim. Metaphr in vita Lucae away to his Friends and so dispersed r Niceph. Catist Eccl. Hist l. 2. c. 43. over the World Some think that St. Luke made them of Wax others that he did it in Colours but take it either way you please he is as like to have bin a Plaisterer as a Painter and both as either of the two Some are so curious Å¿ Bened. Gonon Chronic. an 33. as to enquire both after the places and the time where and when he handled the Brush and so they find that in the last Year of Christs Life he made two fine ones at Malta three and in two Years at Rome many more one of them with a Ring in the hand is they say at St. Maries seated over the high Altar just in that place where his Chamber was when he made it another at the greater St. Maries S. Maria major which Pope Gregory had about him when there he stopt the raging Plague another the most t Bovius Tom. 16. an 1433. miraculous of all which came from Constantinople and now is adored in Mont Guardia in Italy It is a great pity and a greater wonder that these Images were yet unknown to all the Churches in the World about 800 Years at the least when the second Council of Nice met together to set up Image-worship For if these Fathers had had the least hint that St. Luke had bin a Painter and that the Virgin Mary had blessed some u Benedict Gonon supra of his Pictures they might have left abusing and even profaning holy Scriptures to introduce their strange Worship this one Precedent of St. Lukes Preaching the Gospel one day and the next Morning Painting Images had bin if true and known to be so a ground more then sufficient both to confound their Adversaries whom they called Breakers of Images and to justifie upon some probability what they offered to say as the Papists do now upon a meer account of boldness that the ancient Tradition of the Catholic Church stood for Images Therefore since they did allege nothing of such a visible Importance for their own Cause it is a Demonstration they did not know it and that S. Lukes skill either in Painting or in Sculpture was not yet so much as heard of no more then all his Images which it seems were kept in the dark and as it were under the heap of those thousands which durst not appear abroad till far worse times 6. For the greatest part of those Images which now the Papists set up and adore on their Altars sprung and started up from under ground in the darkest times of the Church like so many Toad-stools and Mushroms in a foggy Night Such is that Marble Statue of Christ which was so
and the ordinary Seats of Roman Saints and when Bellarmin with some others say that they do honor these Images as signs only representing and and not as Seats and Instruments inhabited or assisted by the invisible Spirit of their Saints they are confuted by these two waies the visible Practice of their Church and the invisible Testimony of their own private Consciences What might be said more probably both in behalf of these Images and of their zealous Devotion in worshipping them is what frees them from the reproach which Holy Scripture casts on Idols that they have Eies and see withal they have Hands wherewith they handle and somtimes give terrible blows if they have Mouths it is not in vain since they can cry and laugh and speak and somtimes also Prophesie Feet have they and thereon leap and walk and flee and if they have Noses they smell therewith and can tell where the wanton and the wicked Persons are All this I say from their own approved Authors Only the main difficulty remains and I conjure all sober Men as they tender their Salvation to look how to satisfie it well to know what is the inward Principle Spirit or Soul which moves and animates these dead Figures to all and more then what living Bodies can perform with the help of their living Souls Here let the Roman Catholics well consider whether to justifie them by these acts of activity from being Idols doth not by the same means both accuse and convince them of being Devils The Holy Scripture warns Men often against false Christs and false Prophets against false Apostles and false Spirits it were strange if we had no need of warning or of being wary against false Saints I find somtimes the best Roman Monks much puzled what to think of their most celebrated Apparitions and tho they trust too much their Holy Water a pitiful trial God knows in the discernment of the good from the bad Spirits yet they do not think it uncatholic to demur somtimes in such matters It is neither want of Learning nor want of Faith in the School-men the Primitive Fathers of Popery which makes them dispute now and then whether that which they see at Mass under the Figure of raw Flesh or a young Child be Christ himself or a Phantome and certainly we have no ground either in Scripture or in Reason or in Experience to secure us but that the Devils which play such pranks both in Apparitions and on Altars may juggle as well and play worse tricks about consecrated Images First It is no small prejudice against these Roman Images and the Roman way of using them that both came so late into the Church and that in the best Primitive Times when the Church was a purer Virgin none but Heretics had Images whereas in these later and worse Ages when the Church is confessedly worse too no Roman Catholics are without them It is also no small prejudice against the best as it is supposed and the most famous of these Images that when they were admitted at first as either visible Records of Ecclesiastical Antiquity or as Ornaments of new Walls not one of them did work Miracles or if it did 't was in behalf of Infidels and Pagans only as it is presupposed by Patriarch Tharasius n Nicaen Synod secund Act. 4. pag. 626. Edit Bin. Paris 1634. the great Promoter of Image Worship whereas now since they are become both the Objects and the Instruments of Roman Devotion and Blessing they generally work all Miracles in behalf of the Romanists The alteration in the Church as it is now full of Images from the Church as it was then without any Image Worship as it is visible and great must have some visible and great Cause Is it because the Pagans and the Heretics then and the Mass-Priests and Papists now understand the worth of Images and the right use of Image-worship better then the Holy Apostles did Or is it because the Holy Apostles had neither Patriarchs nor Prophets nor Martyrs to make Saints of or to consecrate Images to Is it not more probable to think that this Alteration hath thus happened because both Pagans and Papists are of the same mind as to Images And because the Spirits which Christ and his Blessed Apostles had silenced and beaten off from most of their Pagan Quarters having long wandered among the Heathen and in dry places have at last found better shelter and emploiment at Lauretta Montserat and other great Roman Oracles What can one think else of Images which having kept themselves close dumb and obscure in the best and Primitive daies take now their advantage to start up and to make a noise and to shew Miracles in these later times of the Church when both by Christ and his Apostles Predictions and the Judgment p Joseph Acosta de Temporib Novissim l. 3. c. 3. 14. of sober Papists all must be full of false Prophesies of strong Illusions and lying Wonders Secondly That which aggravates the suspition of appearing in unhappy Times like the coming of Thieves and unexpected Straglers in dark Nights is the ugly and pitiful Holes where most of these Images were at first found For these Images I mean those wonderful and famous ones which the Roman Church runs most after were neither lately made by common Painters nor consecrated by ordinary Roman Bishops they are supposed to have bin made and consecrated by no meaner Workmen then God himself his Christ his Angels and such of his Saints as S. Luke S. Nicodemus c. were and so left and deposited to the Christian Church and Catholic Tradition Hereupon let me ask two things absolutely necessary for any sober satisfaction The first When and where if ever at all these Saints made these Images and by laying on of their Hands or otherwise conferred on them the Gifts of Speaking of Prophecying and working Miracles or put in them an inward or assisting Spirit to make them speak foretel and do strange things The second When and where having used them as it is supposed they have they thought fit to bury them under Ground and to hide some among Thorns some under Brambles all in most pitiful places as dark Holes and hollow Trees where they were found and where any wise Man would rather look for Worms or Toads If you say they hid them in those places for fear of the Pagan Persecuters Pagans were not haters at all nor destroiers of Images contrariwise they loved Images as Papists do But since they were great Burners and Destroiers of Holy Scriptures Why would the Apostolical Men rather hide their Books under ground which were most principally both hated and sought after then their Images which were not so And if they hid both Images and Books together by what universal Mischance did they never find any of these where they found those How came the Holy Scriptures to discover themselves so soon ever in cruellest times of the Primitive