Holiness and that of the Rosary for instance or S. Francis and twenty more by turning Beads or wearing Frocks or Girdles and by such other new Performances To join and keep all this together the Roman Church submits to two Heads the Son of God in Heaven and his Holiness in Italy and Preaches two different and sometimes contrary words of God which you must embrace both together with the same Devotion and Faith namely the written word of God which you may find in the Holy Scripture and the unwritten Tradition which you must seek in that Churches Breast In this unhappy conjuncture of true Catholic Christianity and of mere Roman Popery that happens which you may observe either in unnatural and beastly Copulations the baser kind spoils the better or in the Dreams of Pharaoh the ugly destroies the well-favor'd We find by sad experiences in these last times of the Gospel what heretofore was typified by Ceremonies and also expressed ever after by unhappy Examples under the Law the Flesh which was consecrated and made holy at Gods Altar had not the same vertue to sanctifie the unclean as the unclean had to defile that which was Holy Nor were the Israelites so powerful to convert the Idolatrous Jebusites to God when Married together as were the Jebusites to seduce them to their Idols and for this consideration the Law forbad such Societies Corrupt Nature we know hath of it self both a strange tendency to frivolous and unlawful and no less aversness from truly good and holy things so tho the power of both were equal as to sanctifying or corrupting our inward Inclinations are more likely to determine us to the worst side Never were Women so ready to part with their choicest Jewels as when 't was to make a Golden Calf nor could ever so many Fathers have bin perswaded to be so cruel as to pass their Children thro the fire had it not bin to serve Molock The Kingdom of Heaven is by our Savior compar'd to Seed now one handful of Tare is enough to poison and over-run a whole Field Hence it is that tho the ten Tribes of Israel retained the Law of Moses as well as the Papists do at this present the Gospel yet the holy Prophets mention no other Religion whether in Dan or Beer sheba but the waies of Jeroboam and the Ordinances of Omry And tho the Samaritans did make profession to serve the Lord God of Israel among the gods of other Nations 2 Kings 17.33 Yet their service to these so immediatly takes up their whole Devotion that in the following Verse you find that they do not fear God at all It is by this fatal prevalency of evil over good and the corrupt readiness of Men to yield to this prevalency that the Roman superstition hath not only over-topped but even over-whelmed the Catholic Faith to that degree as any Christian may both see it if he have Eies and must deplore it too if he have any sense or fear of God What the Blessed Evangelists have set down in the four Gospels and what the Blessed Apostles have Preached upon it thro the whole World is yet at Rome as to its being but as to its condition there it is as miserably buried under the confused heap of other new unchristian services as ever was that Book of the Law 2 Kings 22.8 under the Ruines of the Temple Their Masses Legends Auricular Confessions Bulls Praiers to Saints and the Worshipping of Images fill up the Churches and make the main Bulk of all visible Religion There if some good Praiers to God Almighty appear by chance among the Croud it is as one Pater noster among many Ave Maria's that is one among ten in their Beads and if you take the pains to compare how many Praiers Proses Panegyrics and other expressions of the deepest Devotion are bestowed on the Virgin with what is left for our Savior there you shall find somewhat the same proportion between them two as you may see both in the Images that represent them in their Churches and in the most Authentic Visions which are pretended to shew them together to their Monks where she appears still with all the Pomp that can attend a glorious Queen whil'st Christ her Son is still represented but as a Child Thus Papists have the Common Faith and I wish to God they had no more and their own proper Romanism to the very same or like purpose as the Jews have the Law and the Prophets and the Talmud of their Rabbies and as the Turks have both much of Moses and of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and all the Impieties of Mahomet this latter to choak the former as the Tares in the Parable did the good Seed or to dishonor and abuse it as the Babylonians in Dan. 5. did the holy Vessels of Gods house To make all these sins more sinful and Popery more dangerous these unhappy Superstructures which lie as a heavy Encumbrance upon the holy Foundation of God are now adaies used as so many Snares and Attractives to draw Men to the Church of Rome Protestants have among themselves neither better nor other waies of saving distressed Sinners then by charging them to forsake sin to believe and to live according to the Gospel and with this Faith the use of Divine Ordinances to cast their burden and themselves on the Mercies of God in Christ whereas over and above all this the Papists have a great deal more which others do lay no claim to First they have the Queen of Heaven and the Mother of Compassions who is unknown on this account to the best Churches And this Goddess is represented as such a Tresurer of all Graces and a Favorer of such Persons and upon such good and easie terms as without her it were absolutely vain to expect advantage from the aid even of the whole Trinity In the second place they have millions of Saints who whensoever called upon make it their business to help as much as in them lies every condition sort and profession of Men. There is never a small Parish nor Trade no nor any exigence want or disease but hath some favorable and proper Saint The very Images of Wood and Stone are instrumental to great Blessings their Churches and Altars are consecrated in such a manner that the very coming near them forgives some sins The sound and ringing of Bells if Christned after their way hath much vertue Who knows not how much devout persons are benefited by Holy Water and devout Praiers improved to high Merits by holy Beads It were infinite to say all that is pretended of the Agnus Dei Medals and a numberless store of Relics and how they are working every day up and down the World for believing Catholics more Cures then you can ever imagine The Milk the Hairs the Shift the Shoes but especially the Girdle of the Virgin Mary are to this purpose tried and well known What shall we say of those swelling Streams
should say London is all England when the King and the Parliament sit at Westminster the Tribe of Levi all Israel when the High Priest and his Sanhedrin keep their Courts there Which is to say not that all Christendom is contained in the precinct and bosome of Rome but under its hand and power Thus to be the Catholic is not to be the Universal but only the Domineering Church and so far Roman Catholic which many wise men take for a Bull perhaps it sounds better then they are aware of since the Romans love to be Masters and since the Mastering Power hath bin a great while under their hand But there is a reply against all this that no Roman Power or wit can well shift off First this notion of Catholic to signifie commanding or Monarchical is altogether unusual and unheard of among the Fathers especially St Cyprian and St Austin who are all for keeping close to the Catholic Church and Faith and all at the same time for keeping themselves and their Churches free from the Monarchy of Rome Secondly it is tho it were true impertinent to such purposes as the Papists apply it to For suppose Rome hath the Power hath she therefore the Holiness the Infallibity the Promises of being led into all truth by the Spirit Hath she all such other great advantages which are made to the Catholic Universal and not to the Catholic Reigning Church Did Aaron never make an Idol altho he was the Lords high Priest Were either the Scribes ever kept from inventing idle Traditions by being Rulers in Jerusalem or St Peter from cursing himself and denying his own Master by that Jurisdiction they say he had over the rest of the Apostles Is his Holiness for instance John the twelfth or Sylvester the 2d the one less effeminate the other less a sorcerer or either of them more holy for all the power they say they have both over all the Kings of the Earth and over all the Churches of Christ And may not the holy City of Jerusalem be turned both into a Den of Thieves or into a Synagogue of Devils altho you believe her to have a very great and eminent sway over all the Tribes of Israel Therefore it is not the Catholic that is the Monarchical but the Catholic in a better sense that is the Universal Church of Christ that hath the Promises of God and this excellent Privilege which both Papists and others look for of bringing all its truly Catholic Members to Eternal Salvation But admit all what they would have that their Church may be said to be the Catholic because it has dominion over all other Churches whence comes this Catholic Power that can make her as really to be as to be said so It comes they say by lawful succession from Saint Peter who had it and so bequeath'd it to their Popes This is I confess easily said but hardly maintained or understood For first St Paul knew nothing of it when he resisted this Soveraign both publicly and to his Face Galat. 2.11 Nor did the whole College of Apostles when they sent him with John as freely as now the Pope sends his Legats to settle the Church at Cesarea Acts 8.14 Nor the whole Church of Jerusalem when they called him to an account about his behavior with the Gentiles Acts 11.2.3 Nor the holiest Fathers of the Church when they did call his Successors that is their own Soveraigns by the familiar name of Brothers Nor the whole Church of God with them when as it appears c Aen. sylv Epist l. 1. Epist 288. pag. 202. Basil by the very Confession of one who afterwards came to be Pope they took little notice of this sort of Catholicness Ante Nicenam c. that is Before the Nicene Council they regarded little the Roman Church and by the Interpretation of Ruffinus a Roman Priest who lived but few years after it its sixth Canon restrains this pretended Universal Power within the adjacent Towns of Rome I will say more even two hundred Years after Pope Gregory the first was so little acquainted with this pretended Prerogative that he could not suffer the hearing e Greg. Magn. Regist. l. 7. Ind. 1. Ep. 33. ad Eulog of it no not in a Compliment altho bestowed sometimes on others and so little as to this point skilled in Scripture that tho he insists often on these words Thou art Peter c. Feed my Flock and I will give thee the Keies c. the present great Supporters and Demonstrations of Universal Monarchy this blind Doctor could see in them nothing tending to such a Catholic Latitude If Christ had intended any such Power for Saint Peter 't was not a business to be whisper'd privatly d Ruffin Hist l. 1. c. 6. in the Ear as the Treason he told Judas of it was to be proclamed on the House tops and in the hearing of all the World according to the practice of Moses and Elisha when they made choice of their Successors in the face of all Israel Such a public Declaration might have presently both quelled the dangerous and undecided Contention among the Disciples to wit Who should be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven prevented all the Disorders which have ever since troubled the Church for want of knowing this supreme and infallible Governor Then might the Roman Church have spared forging f Binius in Donat Edict Constant Conc. Tom. 1. pag. 313. 314. Edit Par. 1636. Donations Decretals to her own shame to assert her Power in Europe And the Popes might have reserved that massy weight of Gold which they gathered from the Christians under the ordinary pretences of Holy War for holier uses then were either g Avent Annal. Bocor l. 7. the arming Turks against such Churches as would not acknowledg his Grandeur or driving distressed Bishops on this account by Persecution h Vid. Quillem Tyrium l. 15. c. 15. c. and hard usage to seek for shelter among the Turks All Nations without either fraud or force might then have learned their duty towards S. Peters Chair at the same time when they heard of S. Peters Gospel and if this pretended Tradition whether written or not written had waited but at a distance on the first Preaching of Christian Faith they would certainly have submitted to it that is to that Universal Empire as they did to Episcopacy Secondly Suppose against all what I have said that St Peter had during his life an Universal Monarchy What sound Reason what clear Text of the holy Scripture or what undoubted Tradition can any one allege to shew he left it to a Successor Did he leave him also his other Gifts and Privileges and among them his Faith of Miracles his Apostolical Rod to strike men with some to the ground as they say he did at Rome Simon Magus and others to their very Graves as he did certainly Ananias and Saphira Did he pass
them after they are dead without Repentance It is enough for you to know y Rich. ibid. she doth it And what might she not do for these Villains since she can with her two Angels be a Midwife z Discipulus De Miracul Mar. Tom. 2. Serm. Exempl 25. Palbart l. 21. c. 13. to very whores your main Interest is to see in return of these great Mercies Kindnesses and Protections what Services now she will have CHAP. VI. Concerning the Adoration and new Waies of serving the Virgin Mary WHEN the Roman Doctors are among themselves either worshipping at their Altars or discoursing in their Pulpits or teaching in their public Scholes they freely talk of adoring a Vid. Concil Nicenum 2. the blessed Saints they think them to be Canonized most principally for this end that they may publicly b Antonin Sum. part 3. l. 22. c. 8. be adored and praied to and they highly commend the Greek who at his first Conversion professed that he did c Salazar Prov. c. 8. v. 15. n. 114. adore from his heart our Lady the Queen of the world And their S. Damascen is herein their great Goliah driving before him all the Fathers with this weapon Decet enim c. It must be so f Damasc 1. De Nativ 2. de Assumt or t is fitting that this Mother of God should enjoy that which belongs to her Son and therefore the Glory of being adored by all men But when the Papists are amongst us tho they keep still their hearty thoughts they do quite reform their Language they are ashamed to say in England what they are proud to do at Rome If you believe what they say here it was never heard in their Church that they must adore any Saint g Censura Colon. p. 228. unless by chance it be in that sense in which Jacob adored his Brother and Abigail King David which is no Divine honor at all but only such a reverence as is deferred h Coster in Enchirid. to Kings or Fathers or such honorable Persons and therefore and justly too why not to Saints And if you be inquisitive and press them farther about this Point then they will run out into so many Distinctions and terms of Art as will puzle any Lay-man Dulia Latria hyperdulia Absolute and Relative Worship Divine Adoration and bordering upon Divine Godhead essential and Godhead participated so that it will go very hard with them if they do not leave him whom they pretend to satisfie as ignorant and more confounded then he was before They will tell you that they intend not either to adore the Virgin or to adore her otherwise then respectively that it is in a mere relation to her Son and those Intentions being in their hearts it is impossible there to search out either the Truth or the untruth of what they say But if you look to what they do instead of hearkning to what they say their most solemn and practical Devotions have such a plain and real language as must declare to all the world both what their Religion is in it self and what you may best think of it 1. First they bestow and accumulate upon the Virgin all the best Titles which both in the Church and in the Scripture are proper to God For in their most solemn Devotions she is a She God a She Savior the Queen of Queens the Fountain of Salvation the Ladder and Gate of Heaven c. And it were great folly in us to think that they do not worship her according to what they call her since it is not in such Rencounters that men use to play the Hypocrites 2. Secondly in their ordinary Praiers and Praises and Giving of Thanks they do most commonly join her with God Jesu Maria comes in one word out of their Mouths and Glory be to God and to the blessed Virgin is but one compleat Doxologie at the end of most of their Books Now such an Association as this is in the judgment of the Fathers a clear Evidence of being God Thus they prove i Athanas Orat. 4. contr Arian pag. 260. Edit Comel against the Arians that the Angel whom Jacob praied to when he blessed his Grand-children Gen. 48.16 is the Lord Christ because in that praier he is joined with the God of his Fathers and that this Christ is very God k Ibid. p. 159. because the Apostles join him with God both in their Praiers and their Praises Grace be to you and Peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Rom. 1.7 c. The strength of their Demonstration consists in this that in all those daies both when the Prophets and Apostles did write the Holy Scriptures and when the holy Fathers did maintain the Faith which is contained in them no man was seen or heard praying l Athanas suprà Cyrill Alexand. Tom. 5. in Thesaur pag. 115. Ed. Paris 1638. for any thing both to the Father and to an Angel or to any other Creature for Popery was not yet abroad nor wishing that God or his Angel or any greater Creature whatsoever would grant or give him any thing And they take it for an insufferable piece of m Cyrill Alex. ibid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sawciness when the Arians dare couple as upon their Principles they do any Creature with the Lord God Such was the known Catholic Faith and Profession of the Primitive times for otherwise judicious and learned Men would not have produced it in that manner as an undoubted Evidence against such subtil and dangerous adversaries Now both the Roman Faith and practice taking a quite contrary way we I hope are more bound to think that the Papists who follow this are Idolaters then that the holy Fathers who went on in that were very Fools 3. Thirdly The Papists apply to the Virgin the most illustrious Places of Scripture that belong directly to Christ and by this means either disable all true Christians from the possibility of proving by the Scriptures that He is God or prove as well that She is so too I will mention out of many but few Instances Every word almost of the eighth Chapter of the Proverbs which doth describe the Eternal Wisdom of God which by the Fathers is applied to Christ alone and which is none of the least cogent Mediums they stand upon to demonstrate him to be that true essential and uncreated Wisdom is now turned another way n Vid. Salazar in Prov. to deifie their Virgin It is by her namely the Virgin if you believe those Abusers of Holy Scripture that Kings reign and that Princes decree Justice v. 15. By her Princes rule and Nobles and all Judges of the Earth 16. Riches and honor are with her true durable Riches and Righteousness 18. She leads in the way of Righteousness she causes them who love her to have substance The Lord saies she out of these Blasphemers
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
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