have it thought that he is victorious in his main design although indeed and truth it belong nothing at all to it But let me not stop his carreere If any such figure of the Deity were inconsistent in the old Law much more in the new where we are commanded to worship God in spirit and truth O uncontroulable consequence arising from premisses most true No man can or dare deny all this Methinks I love him here for his reason and cannot but grieve it should be all spilt in vain so pure it is and precious A little more of this while he is in a good mood It seems more rational to worship God in the Sun and Moon which have more of God in them than a Picture has and to say our prayers to the Sun and Moon than to any Image Seems so Sir It is certainly more rational what should we doubt of And what a pitty is it there should be none to be found who worship God in a Picture either ideally or presentially none who say their prayers to a picture that this great blow of his might not beat the Aire to the indangering of his elbows Saint Paul testifies that the Godhead is not like either to gold or silver or stone Good St. Paul always said well and his testimony is good at all times and especially now when it hits so pat with the wiser Heathens There be many Churches now in England which have since our reformation the Tetragram name of God written upon the walls within side in golden letters Unto those men who did this it would not seem altogether impertinent to tell them that the Godhead is not like to gold silver or stone But to such as use only the effigies of our Lord according to his humanity and his holy Apostles and Martyrs what a pitty it is it should be impertinent and wholly lost Let him speak on some more of his truths Germanus Patriark of Constantinople says expresly that Christians make no representation of the invisible Deity and St. Damascene affirms it madness to go about it Marry God have mercy o' their souls for this their express saying Catholicks would desire no better a testimony for themselves if they wanted any then this of those two great Catholick Doctors that no such repreâ—entation entation they have and none they go about to have O but he hopes that all this being true will make strongly against the Church of Rome And will it so I have heard say there be a thousand Churches in Rome which are all Churches of Rome equally Which of them all are concerned in this talk that their walls may confute him But he means Catholick people perhaps oh O then all is well they are safe enough and unhurt by all this which is but their own doctrine and faith At least he has by these fair shreds of truth farced up a dozen pages in his book And he hopes that his protestant reader will believe it all to be most pertinent and apposite discourse against papishes though it be nothing less And if they do so think he has his end a happy Man no doubt § 8. Moses forbad saith he the making of any graven thing and the word which Moses uses in that his law for a graven thing is general and signifies not an idol only as Papists say but any picture likeness image or representation as Moses himself speaks either in heaven above or in earth below or waters under the earth pesel themurah eikon glypton sculptile any kind of thing that may be exprest either with the pencil or graving tool Believe me Sir if this be true it will undo all our Painters who come flocking hither into England as the only thriving place for them out of Holland Germany France and Italy too and here fill the Land with pesels themunahs eikons gâ—yptons sculptile's and any things they can express with their pencils for our delight Dolphins whales and other fish of the Sea biâ—ds of the Aire Beasts Flowers Woods gallant men and fair women all that ever Moses forbad to be exprest Nay I have seen my self in a Protestant Church Moses himself painted on the walls with glittering hornes on his head and a pair of law tables in his hand But it may be Law-makers do exemp themselves at least some Protestants may interpret as they seem to do that Moses forbad to make the figure of Jesus Christ but not his own No man in England scruples to have any of these eikons no not the Doctor himself notwithstanding this law of Moses so expresly contrary to them all no man doubts to set any painter or graver on work And yet must still this Law be cast in the teeth of Catholicks as transgressors of it For Gods sake why is St. Mary Magdalen in her penitential weeds upon her knees with beads in her hand and eyes all blubbered and swoln with tears more against the law of Moses than one of our delicate Paragons of beauty in her shining dress lips of coral and sparkling eyes O but Catholicks worship them Sâ—r this word in the sense and meaning of protestants is as great a falshood as was ever uttered by man For Catholicks neither have nor can have any other relative esteem of any Picture than what they have to the penitential works they represent or to the worth and piety of the Persons And an absolute esteem of the Picture this is measured out only by the Materials and artifice of the Painter according to which one Picture shall be worth five hundred pounds and another representing the same thing not worth five shillings And can we believe that our Protestant young Gentlemen have no veneration at all to our beauties set thus in their Majesty nor no kind of affections rising in their hearts towards them Yea ten to one more of ill affections and god wot greater then any good ones we can have to our crucisied Jesus in our way of piety And the difference indeed is only this that our reverence and affection is towards holy persons and unto an imitation of their piety hope patience constancy and charity Their 's to a concupiscence of flesh and eyes This and nothing but this if truth may be spoken makes them so wrathful and furious against our Catholick pictures Satan hates Jesus Christ and therefore inflames them to tear down his memories and representations but he loves pride of life and those portractures must stand that advance this He is pleased with that which feeds concupiscence of eyes and concupiscence of flesh brings him in the disciples which Jesus Christ loses Moses did forbid Jews who were travelling with him towards Palestine and idolatrous Nation to make to themselves that is to say on their own heads without warrant of the Synagogue or in imitation of the Pagan rites any of the idolatrous images there and elsewhere to be met withal or any similitude at all least seduced thereby they leave their own God and religion to
When children in obedience and duty to their parents spitting upon their effigies said as they were taught to say I renounce the Devil and all his works When all the People flocked together in all places to tear down Churches and Chappels and private Oratories in Houses with a Now boys we are free men let us eat drink and play for to morrow we shall dye No more duty of any our daily Prayers no more fasting no more vows no more troublesome adoration upon our Knees no more pining meditations no more pennance no more restitution no more Priest no more Altar no more Cross or holy Rood no more Peter and Paul to be seen no more languishing memories of Saints no more obedience to the erring Church no more self-examination no more conscience scruples c. Those times indeed were mad enough But now People as newly awaked from Wine begin to be wiser and look more soberly about them Even Denmark and Holland consider now in cold blood the many sad mischiefs they acted in hot nor is our own Countrey wholly ignorant of the irreparable ruins of those mad times However our Doctor will not have his sport spoiled nor yet his game stopt Punchienella though Bartholmew fair be ended may be acted still either in Lincolns-Inn-fields or Chairing cross or any where else both now and then and seven Years hence It will be still new to some body But Sir you are to take notice that nothing being so opposite to Jesus our Lord or his holy law or even to common reason then Idolatry the Doctor has craftily placed it in the very front of his forlorn hope therby surely to affright silly Catholicks from their old station and to deter all others from Communion with them as Persons grievously guilty of abominable Pagan even worse than Pagan Idolatry verily Sir Mandevils Gyant in the enchanted Valley of Python cannot be more terrifying to a Night-Walker nor Sir Hudibras his Squire mounted on the out-side of his soft-footed steed to the diffiding Fidler then this Sir Doctors Monstrous Idol to one who claims part with Christ in God True it is some of the prime Reformers and others who since have thrived in the World therby through a bitterness of spirit against the zealous Prelates of the Catholick Church who opposed their Ambition or Lust or both did cast this scandalous Assertion of Idolatry upon Us for our Veneration of Images heedless as the old Pagans they imitate were what Accusations they charge against us or by what sleevless arguments they prove them so they may thereby make their Apostacy from our holy Church somewhat colourable amongst Vulgar Spirits who still like the men of Athens are intent upon Novelties ignorant of the Nature motive and design of divine Worship a mistaking wherein only can beget a just imputation of Idolatry on the Worshipper surely his Doctorship may not be ignorant hereof and therefore his charging us therewith upon those his soft grounds of a Termination of our Worship on Pictures obscurely and fraudulently worded argues an unexcusable Malice passion or dulness Did he ever read a Divine Worship ultimately terminated upon figures to be allowed by any Canon of the Roman Church Did any of our Catholick Doctors or Schoolmen whom he seems to have swallowed by shoals ever assert that termination Did he learn that Doctrin from any professor of the Catholick faith I am sure he did not But we must give the Doctor leave to walk in his own Maze and to think and speak and write too what he pleases Worship of its self is of a great latitude therefore to speak to the purpose he should set down what he means by Divine Worship as distinct from other inferior Worships Religious and Civil wherby it becomes proper to God then he should appoint the formal End to which that Worship tends according to the nature of the act and the duty of him that gives it but thus concealing what alone would have cleared Us from his grand calumny he endeavours to puzzle and delude his greedy Readers into a belief of our Idolatry and to a great Veneration of his Reverend and Worshipful Doctorhood knowing them to be weathercock-like easily whirl'd about with every grave blast of his if it blows but in the teeth of Popery He again discovers his own real or wilful Ignorance of what Relative Worship is and whether it tends every termination of a Latreutical affection or action wherwith we honour God as the Authour of life and death signified by the sacrifices of the Old Law makes not that Worship relative otherwise the Worship of God immediatly in spirit would be Relative too Relative Worship imports a reference of one object to another in our Worship which therfore looks not upon the former either as the motive nor yet as the ultimate term of its tendency but only as it does occasionally awaken our spirits confined to sensible objâ—cts in their first motion and oft distracted about them to think on God by reason of some connatural or arbitrary connexion they have according to the common esteem of mankind with Him and consequently terminates not our Worship without an indispensable reference to God the latter object whence our Divine worship takes its first Rise and whereupon it finally rests And thus not only Divine Relative Worship but other Religious and civil too are and ought to be allowed in any Church or State which hath any thing Worshipful in it Thus the good Saint Paul will have us bow at the Holy Name of JESVS and why not at the Name of GOD or JEHOVAH and that whether it be imagined spoken printed or painted sith God is equally ineffable by any of them and what One represents to the Mind the other to the Ear the latter does to the Eye Their Rubricks too requires a Worship of their figurative Bread and their graver Clergy will stil bow to and be uncovered before their Communion Board and who not when the Parson prays I have seen Images of the Saints even of Christ at the right hand of his Father bound up in their Common-prayer-Books and Used by Protestants without fear of Idolatry and K. James a wise and learned Prince in the Year 1617. ordred pictures of our Saints to be set up in his Chappel of Haly-Rudd House in Edinburgh as Spoteswood tells us Thus good Subjects for the love they bear their gracious Prince will ever be uncovered before his Throne and had the High and Mighties paid their Relative Homage to his Majesties Ships by sticking their Flag and lowring their Top-Sails they had not deserved to be cancel'd the Roll of Free-States nor though they hate Papists and their Images did they ever plead that Recognizance to be Idolatry had they I believe it had made them yet more Ridiculous than they are even in our own courts All this Dr. Still might have considered But his tongue is hot and he must speak although it be against himself and the very
with so palpably incredible calumnies therein inserted His Account indeed seemes chiefly designed for Vulgar Capacities and therfore he mainly endeavours to captivate their attention and belief with much sophistry and many smooth stories of some Doctors amongst Catholicks whose different Opinions about the Moods of Christian Doctrin which they believe simply as it is delivered them plainly though they Vary in their Explications of Divine Mysteries he makes pass for disagreeing in Articles of Faith of others some who schismatically affected speak the stile of their predominant passions not according to the Religion they received from their Catholick Teachers and are therefore censured by the great Overseers of Christiantâ—y whom nevertheless the Doctor makes to speak the pure sense of the Roman Churches Faith and Piety And of some too whose Judgments guided by the compass of their ambitious and unclean affections driving at gâ—eat Names and Places cause division in the outward Hierarchy and Government of the Church for which neither the Canons of our Faith and Manners gives them any authority nor may it be hoped that either the care or power of our chief Pastors may wholly avoid such Wolves since according to Christ's prophesy scandals will still arise though our Catholick Bishops still oppose themselves against them and yet the Doctor will have these either to be our Church Governors or their actions to be destructive of our Catholick Vnity But all these slights of his are to so little purpose that many sober Protestants has been startled at thâ—se his Cantings and Imputations upon so anâ—iâ—nt and grave a Body of Christians whom their former Teachers ever allowed to be members of Christ's Mystical Body and capable of salvation in their own way of Christian observance Whence as the Cruelty of the old Roman Emperours and Presidents against the Primitive Christians moved many Vnbelievers of those times to embrace the Roman Faith so has the severe Accusations of the Doctor against Catholicks moved many of their Adversaries to a more steddy enquiry into our Catholick Truths to confer more reverently with the Dispensers of the Doctrin of that defamed Religion and oft to conclude somewhat more than ordinary of truth and honesty to be found in that Way which being long since banished this Nation by very severe Laws is still so eagerly arraigned so clamorously cryed down in Press and Pulpit and at any Rate exposed to the severity of those whose Interest passion or dulness has ever since engaged them in its suppression The Doctors whole Account amounts to a pulling down and a setting up first he pulls down the Church of Rome then He sets up his Own he makes Vse of four formidable Engins to overturn that our Catholick Church which your TO KATHOLICO amply examines But surely if the Church of Rome falls all Churches which either received their belief from her or now communicate in faith with her must fall too and thus the Catholick Church and the Communion of Saints an entire Article of the Apostles Creed is on a sudden cancelled Indeed it is so proper to all Church Reformers to pull down Churches and such like Monuments of our forefathers Christian piety suckt in with that faith they originally received from their Roman Apostles that our Natiâ—n has cause enough to bewail the power of thâ—â— Sword of Gospellers in whose sense we may confess The Roman Church in some measure to be no sound Church even no Church at all were their Swords as keen as their Pens and Tongues and as close-laid as Nero once wished His to an Imaginary Neck for we are ever bound to believe each one speaks and writes his own thoughts and hearty wishes The Doctor having endeavour'd to level our Roman Church and not finding One principled according to his own Acephalick passion wherewith to close lays the foundation of his Own properly His Stillingfleet Church Not Roman nor Protestant nor indeed any Church at all for where he leaves neither any constant Rule wherby to square our faith or observance in necessaries not clearly revealed in holy Wriâ—t nor any power to oblige to a conformity in Belief and Practices nor any One Visible Head for our Direction and Communion there can be no Church of Christ but a Babel and Confusion that which evidently follows from the Doctors Own Principles whereunto he pretends the faith of Protestants must be reduced as to the only true Test of its being Christian and Catholick And thus after our long reproaching that Church as Vnprincipled the Doctor in a full Council of his own thoughts assembled in Vertue of his all-all-truth discerning Spirit synodically pronounces his Anathema's against Vs and publishes Canons of faith to all the Churches of England and will prove it to be One Holy Apostolical and Catholick by such Rules as neither Scripture nor Councels nor Fathers nor any Church ever menâ—â—on'd before nor will ever be solemnly canoniz'd by any Synod of our Englâ—sh Pâ—â—lates however he pretends them to be Protestant wherein we may admire at their silence even by those Rules by which aâ—â—â—elief built on them not borrowed from the Roman Church may be contradictory and will be cleerly resolved not to have One Mark of the true Christian Church even to be no Church at all but a pure Stillingfleet an phantosm His design in forging these his Principles was thence to shew the Protestant Church as Protestant or as it is by Schism separated from the great Catholick Body of Christians to be Positive Vniform and Principled whereas by them it is clearly Negative Confusive and Begs the question in the root of all Briefly thus As for the first the Dr aims directly at the subversion of all traditional Revelation and of an external visible and infallible proponent of divine credibles and of all power obligeing to acceptance of them as such and consequently at the overthrow of all Articles by the Church of Rome allowed and Canonized as truths revealed upon those grounds As for the next his Canons for the interpreting Gods written Revelations are of that Latitude that whoever admits them if he please may disagree with the Doctor and all others and with himself too at different times by virtue of a pretended Personal infallible-all-truth discerning-faculty which he allows all in all fundamentals and superstructures depending on the controverted sense of Gods written Word after a sober enquiry and sincere endeavours however necessary those credibles be to salvation or the framing one Church of many truth-discerning members whether this their enquiry be performed by the working of reason only which in supernatural Truths revives Pelagianism or by a pretended personal divine assistance in regard of each Believer to which every one may as legally pretend and appropriate it to himself by pretence of having used his best means to understand Scripture as the Dr. himself or any other Teacher which is to erect an Acephalick Enthusiasm or Fanaticism And as for the last if it be a legal proof that there