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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36956	A vindication of Saint Ignatius (founder of the Society of Jesus) from phanaticism ; and of the Jesuites, from the calumnies laid to their charge in a late book, entitul'd, The enthusiasm of the Church of Rome by William Darrel ...	Darrell, William, 1651-1721.	1688 (1688)	Wing D270; ESTC R8705	31,024	53

it were not a greater Perfection to embarque himself unprovided But suppose his own Judgment told him It was unlawful yet his Confessor brought so weighty Reasons against what he objected that at last he concluded his Confessor was in the Right and Himself in the Wrong and so accordingly he follow'd his Advice Where is the Sin in all this Proceeding Where is the Renouncing the Liberty of his Will and Vse of his Reason Do Men fling up their Reason I beseech you Sir when they leave a weak Motive to stick to a stronger At this rate we must conclude That Fools run loose in the World and that all the Wise Men of the Nation are confin'd to Bedlam Indeed I am not so great an Admirer of Blind Obedience as to judge it a Virtue in all Circumstances Men may command Things contrary to the Law of GOD and in this Case the Commander and the Obeyer are equally guilty Such a Case may be instanc'd in the Transactions of the last Week Thousands of well-meaning Men thought nothing so reasonable as to Read his Majesty's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience in the Churches But then their Reverend Confessors were of another Opinion and so the poor Penitents yielded Blind Obedience to their Directors although Obedience to the best of Princes oblig'd them to a contrary Procedure Here was I grant a Renouncing of the Liberty of Free-Will and Vse of Reason to the purpose and therefore according to your Logick a Sin of the deepest dye both against GOD and the King. But prompt Obedience to a Faction passes in Protestant Casuists for Virtue Yet when a Popish Saint lays aside his private Judgment upon good and rational Motives to follow the Sentiment of his Confessor no less than a Capital Crime is presently clapt on his Shoulders The Gentleman's Gall is still boyling against the Pope and nothing can quench it I see but another Push for it against both the Pope and St. Ignatius for you must know he frets at the One for being a Saint and at the Other for Canonizing him But what cries he in a pleasant Humor if after all Ignatius should be found an Heretick Ay marry Sir This is a necking Blow He would ill deserve the Dignity of a Saint Questionless you are in the right And at the next Reformation of the Calendar might be perhaps expung'd out of it p. 112. You might expunge your Perhaps and assert it confidently Nay I question not but all Catholicks would thank you for your Service could you unmask such a Cheat for they are well-meaning Men and are as loth to be impos'd on as their Neighbours But because I know if a bare Assertion be sufficient nothing is so surprizing which you cannot prove ad evidentiam I beg a short Authentick Reason on Record It will relish well He Believ'd Scripture to be the only Rule of Faith Ibid. I deny it But go on He said That if the Articles of Faith had never been Recorded in the Scripture or as another Author expresseth it Although no Monuments or Testimonies of the Christian Religion had remain'd he should still have believ'd them c. Which manifestly supposeth him to have believ'd that the Knowledge of the Christian Religion must necessarily be receiv'd either from the Scripture or from Extraordinary Illumination and that there is no Medium which might serve the Ends of a Rule of Faith. What no Medium Look back to the 105th Page and there you will see your self of another Opinion for Do you not express your self in as intelligible Terms as possibly can be That he so much doted on Blind Obedience that if he adher'd to his own Principles he must have renounc'd Christianity and even Natural Religion if his Confessor had commanded him And That he propos'd this as a first Principle to all That true Christians ought to submit themselves to the Decision of the Church with the Simplicity of an Infant Methinks this is a Medium between Scripture alone and Extraordinary Illumination Had I been to have drawn up this Indictment of Heresie my utmost Care should have been to have stifled this But you never Look before you Leap and that makes you so often Fall. Your Invective against Blind Obedience jump'd handsomly into Pag. 105. and in Pag. 112. you sell connaturally into Heresie and so down they went though you knew they would never be kept from Clashing on the same Paper But let us wink at this trifling Mistake and grant what you affirm That St. Ignatius did say That if the Articles of Faith had never been Recorded in Scripture c. he would firmly have embrac'd them all Does it follow That he held Scripture alone or Illumination to be the Rules of Faith By no means He was of Opinion 't is true That an Extraordinary Rule might be an Extraordinary Illumination and that the Ordinary One is Scripture interpreted by the Church So that the Sense of his Words is this Although all Scripture and the Church its Interpreter had perished GOD had given him by an Extraordinary Illumination such a clear Knowledge of the Mysteries of our Religion that he would have believ'd them Here you see the Gentleman has not been sparing of Dirt but he grosly miss'd his Aim for I am throughly convinc'd a moderate Eye will easily discover that the greatest Part sticks closest to the Asperser Yet Passion will set his Pen afloat in spight of Fate Indeed he is come to an End of his Accusation and to say something runs in a Circle by making a Recapitulation If it be prov'd That in his Life-time he was esteem'd an Enthusiast an Impostor and an Heretick by many sober indifferent and learn'd Men of the Church of Rome it will be no small Confirmation of the Truth of whatsoever I have hitherto observ'd Yes if their Surmizes were sounded on Reason otherwise by no means For in this Case I am no greater a Friend to Infallibility than your Self I grant you Catholicks in their Estimates may be mistaken as well as Protestants and equally lie open to Prejudices At Alcala he was suspected by some of Sorcery Why The Gentleman begs your Pardon there he is not such a Fool as to tell the Reason No that would wipe off the Aspersion The Truth of the Business is St. Ignatius reclaim'd from his sinful Courses a Person of the first Rank and presently the Wise Populace concluded nothing but the Power of the Devil could draw such a noted Debauchee to GOD. A pretty Accusation you see and as well grounded as that against our Saviour In Belzebub Principe Daemoniorum ejicis Demonia You cast out Devils in Vertue of Beelzebub the Chief of the Devils By others of Heresie and put in the Inquisition for a Visionary 'T is true but How came he of After an Exact Enquiry into the Manners and Doctrine of Ignatius not finding any thing that might render him suspected and judging it not expedient to make him appear before

it incurable This excited in him a passionate Desire of obtaining an equal Reputation in the Church p. 22. If the Lecture of Romances inflamed his Ambition whilst he was yet a Soldier and breath'd the Air of the World we accuse the Lecture as well as the Effect of it But then too I cannot but wonder that such an Accusation should fall from your Mouth who are without doubt guilty of the same Folly for if his Passion carry'd him to Amadis yours tie you to Don Quixot otherwise you could never have follow'd so close your Parallel But that the Life of Christ and Actions of the Saints should work the same Effect I understand not unless he had your Faculty to draw Bad from Good and Vice from the greatest Vertues I will grant you willingly that the Zeal of St. Dominick and Humility of St. Francis first open'd his Eyes and gave him a Prospect of the Folly of all Worldly Pretensions as well as of the Happiness of Those who leave all this for his sake who made them Where is the Crime Where 's Ambition but in your Fancy who spy Faults in others where there are none and will not turn an Eye homeward where I am sure you would find a Subject more than ordinary of Confusion and Detestation Does not St. Austin in his Confessions recount the Conversion of Two Noble Romans by an accidental Reading of St. Anthony's Life And does he load these Converts with the Accusation of Ambition No no This Trade is new and takes its Date from the Blessed Epoche of Reformation 'T was then Christ's Counsels began to be laugh'd at when his very Commands were declar'd Noxious to Christian Liberty When Purity of Faith sounded the Trumpet of Rebellion and any thing pass'd for Lawful but Obedience to the Church When Coblers left their Stalls to mount the Pulpits and pass'd from the mending of Soals to the Direction of Consciences When Religion grew in Vogue like Almanacks and the Freshness of its Date was a sufficient Argument to recommend it I say 'T was Then Men establish'd a New Language when they pickt up a New Faith and first term'd Humility Pride Voluntary Poverty Nakedness c. the most palpable Sequels of an Enthusiastick Ambition Yet this Gentleman having once bolted this wild Proposition Ignatius in his Conversion was acted with Principles of Ambition is resolv'd to stand to it though his Conscience flies in his Face for it Nay and to demonstrate that his Face is dy'd as deep with Brass as his Pen is dipt in Gaul he tells us 'T is so undeniable that even the Writers of his Life cannot dissemble it This appears from the Account given by them of the Motions excited in his Imaginations by reading Romances and the Lives of Saints at his first Conversion which was before mention'd and may be further demonstrated from what Bouhours adds That in exercising all his Religious Austerities he had at first no other Aim than to imitate those Holy Penitents whose Lives he had read and to expiate his Sins p. 30. Sir The Meaning is That at the beginning of his Conversion he had no Thoughts of Instituting an Order for the saving his Neighbour's Soul but his Design was wholly confin'd to the Salvation of his own So that in short here 's your Argument St. Ignatius at first employ'd all his Endeavours by reading of the Saints Lives and asking God Pardon for his Sins to save his own Soul without extending his Care to the Salvation of his Neighbour's therefore his Conversion flow'd from the Principle of Ambition Is not This a most concluding Enthymema Does not the Author deserve to Commence Master of Arts for this cunning Illation Without doubt And I hope the Vniversity will be pleas'd to take it into its serious Consideration whither such an ingenious Philosopher is not worthy of some Promotion But because he wisely foresaw the last Clause And to expiate his Sins would break the Neck of the Argument he thought fit to prevent it by a pretty Slight of Hand usual to Persons of his Quality This last Clause says he was annex'd only to save the Credit of the Saint And let me tell you Sir 'T is only rejected by you to save the Credit of a Pamphleteer But the Gentleman has Two Strings to his Bow. If Bouhour's Recount of his Conversion will not brand St. Ignatius with Ambition the Publisher of his Life by Mutius Vitelleschius's Order shall Pray observe His First Resolutions were to exercise great Austerities and perform extraordinary Penance No harm yet not one Grain of Ambition is hitherto visible Not so much to expiate his Sins which then presented themselves to his View as because he imagin'd that in these Rigours the utmost Perfection of Christianity consisted having no higher Idea of it and desiring with Passion to acquire that Perfection Now let any Man turn this Quotation into all Shapes let him make what Combination he pleaseth he will never frame I am sure an Argument able to convince any Person of St. Ignatius's Ambition For the natural Sense which the Words import is That the Saint aim'd at the highest Perfection of Christianity and plac'd it in the Exercise of great Austerities which without doubt was a Mistake For the Perfection of Christianity consists in a most perfect Love of our Creator other exterior Austerities are only Means to arrive to it Say then the Saint was mistaken in his Idea of Perfection and I will put my Hand to your Accusation But on my Word Sir if you lay Ambition at his Door without better Proofs than you have already produc'd you must maintain your Charge alone Well then rather than fall short of his Intent he singles out another Circumstance very material viz. The Ambition of Founding a new Order in the Cburch had strangely possess'd his Imagination and was the grand Motive of all his Austerities p. 32. That from his Conversion he had conceiv'd such a Design Orlandin and Bouhours agree and I subscribe But that Ambition put this Resolution on foot and as Mr. Bays very well says And all that Where 's your Proof Why I Gad he will not tell us And yet we must swear such a blind Obedience to his Worship as to believe him without any further Inquiry For my part I do not intend to give him a Deference he denies to the Church nor to accuse the Saint by freeing him from Calumny St. Ignatius fram'd a Design to Institute a new Order Ergo Ambition was the Mover of this Great Work. I cannot infer such an Impious Consequence from so Pious an Antecedent nor any Body else without betraying at once a want of Wit and an abundance of Impiety I find that St. Basil and St. Austin had the same Design nay and put it in Execution and yet I dare not for my Life draw this Conclusion Ergo They were Ambitious Will you therefore know St. Ignatius's Motive It was a Zeal for his Redeemer's Honour and