operations as in the times and places seasonable for worship and devotion But how they should worship God by images or as he speaketh oftner in the context of his discourse in images this they do not easily understand When he lays any thing to Catholicks charge he ought to speak I should think as Catholicks do and then he will be understood by them It is not to be conceived how any one can worship God by images and in images but either for the real presence there or ideal imitation or some sort of occasion of worshâ—p arising thence And so God must be worshipped by them and in them either presentially ideally or occasionally And it cannot be presentially For so God is no otherwise present in a picture than in the wall it hangs upon nor yet ideally for the picture for example of St. Mary Magdalen or St. Paul is no idea of that invisible and glorious Godhead nor yet is any other as the Crucifix for example or Christ our Lord in his Birth or Resurrection for all these figures are representations of his humanity and no idea's of his Deity at all And Mr. Stillingfleet must needs mean one of these two ways For otherwise he could not charge them with idolatry for it And therefore I say that his charge is false and slanderous But if he mean that they worship God by images in their images occasionally which is a moral interpretation and the only true one Then is such a work so far from Idolatry that it is a sublime piety For what can they better do then to give God thanks for so great graces mercies helps and comforts bestowed in Jesus our Lord upon his Apostles Martyrs Confessors and Virgins when they look upon their Figures and Pictures either in their contemplations or patience of Martyrdome or conversion of the world subduing and bringing flesh Satan and the World under their seet especially if Catholicks conceive thereby some pious resolution as well they may of doing something the more and patiently suffering for God in imitation of those pious Heroes our Predecessours in Religion and yet naturally but flesh and blood as we our selves are I say all this is signal piety and our Christian duty And according to this morall meaning Catholicks if they do worship God by their Images and in their Images do well and like good Christians But the Doctor will not charge them I suppose with a matter of so much truth and great piety as this is although his words cannot make out any other sence that is true but only this morall one And the more logical sence of worshipping God by images and in images ideally or presentially is false Let him even take whâ—ch sence he pleases either what justifies Catholicks or what falsifies his own assertion It is all one to me whether we stand or he fall § 6. He adds That the worship of God by Images does not terminate upon God because God has forbid it and so gives Gods honor to the Creature This is strange gibberish An act that tends to nothing is no act If it be some act it tends and has already tended to something and it terminates upon that thing unto which it tends and whose act it is denominated This is clear enough even to a young sophomore or one who indeed never yet came into the Air of Philosophy if he do but understand the terms and words here used For example I cannot see a man in the street except my vision terminate upon him nor can my vision terminate upon him but I must see him And it is all one whether I see him close by me or by my Window or in a Looking-glass at home For I cannot see him any way but my sight must terminate upon him and if it do not I see him not And this course of nature is not hindred nor yet altered at all because that Person may haply have forbidden me to look upon him either this way or that For our acts or actions are accomplished within our selves independently of any acceptance or disacceptance of them Acceptance or dâ—sacceptance commanding or forbidding is another thing extrinsecal and quite differing from the substance of the act or action For they specifie onely either the motive or event which may make the act either good or evil either grateful or displeasing but not make it an act or no act or not to tend where it has tended And so must my act of worshipping God by images terminate upon God or else it is no act of worshipping God by them however God may have either commanded or forbid it God has forbidden blasphemy and yet the act terminates upon him otherwise it could not be a sin against him And if Gods worship by Images do not terminate on God whither on Gods name does it tend and how is God worshiped by them This he does not tell us here unless he insinuate it in those following words oâ— his but gives the honour due to God unto the Creature But how can that be If God should have forbid us by his law to see a star through a tube should we not therefore see it but the tube only or should not our sight then be terminated upon the Star So it seems by this Doctors philosophy who hath conversed with the learneder sort of Papists and the wiser sort of heathens but very little with himself Holy Fathers and Doctors have often said that the honour of an Image redounds to the Prototype but never thought or said that the honour of the Prototype redounds to the Image as it is here affirmed against both art and experience But let us hear him proceed in his discourse He will surely let fall some sence or truth ere long § 7. Gods infinite and incomprehensible Deity saith he cannot be represented O here it is This is very true What a comfortable thing it is to meet with a draught of truth sometimes when a man is dry and thirsts after it But to what purpose is this spoken here Catholicks have no representations of that invisible Deity nor none they look after Figures they have of our Lord Christ born as man amongst us and made flesh and crucified and ascending into Heaven Figures also of his holy Followers and Martyrs but representations of the invisible Deify they never yet saw nor heard nor thought of On then The wisest of Heathens judged any such representations of the Divine nature incongruous and unbecoming his glory Indeed they were wise heathens and their judgment very right and good Nor did I ever hear of any Christian wise or unwise any otherwise minded O how would this Doctor prevail if this wise Discourse of his were as pertinent as it is true But he trusts and hopes well that his good fate will so accompany his Reader that he shall not doubt at all that every word that is true in his book is also to some purpose And to some purpose indeed it is namely to
ΤΩ ΚΑΘΟΛΙΚΩ STILLINGFLEETON OR An account given to a Catholick Friend of Dr. Stillingfleets late book against the Roman Church Together with a short Postil upon his Text In three Letters By I. V. C. All things are not which seem to be Nor do all things seem to be which are Bruges Printed by Luke Kerchove 1672. ΤΩ ΚΑΘΟΛΙΚΩ THE PREFACE SIR MAny learned Treatises have been composed and set forth by the Reverend J. V. C. the worthy Author of FIAT LUX for perswading a right Vnderstanding and Moderation in matters of Religion and for the convincing this our distracted Nation of the Innocency of our Catholick Religion and Practices in order to Church and State which have been received with much benefit and applause But that good esteem wherwith You and Others entertained the First Part of his TO KATHOLIKO did especially engage Him to endeavour the publishing the remaining Pieces therof then fitted for your view in obedience to your command as well as to undeceive Dr. Stilâ—â—'s seduced Readers both concerning his Errours and our Vnblamableness as also to discover the grand Imposture contrived by his Malice or Folly for the subversion of his Catholick Neighbours The whole Work had long since been made publick had it not as the cause it justifies suffred much Persecution almost to its utter suppression The malignity of our Adversaeries conscious of the weakness of the Doctor 's charge against Vs and fearing least the perversness of their hearts in imposing and divulging so evident calumnies should become Visible has constrained this your harmless Postill to a longer Voyage then the timely Vindication of our Churches impeached Honour would have otherwise reasonably allowed Having now escaped many storms it walks alone and ventures to look forth upon you yet had its worthy Author been longer spared with Vs you would have seen it in a fuller and more fashionable dress though even thus it is not beneath your Expectations offring unto your Consideration such sober Reflections as well become the dignity of the Holy and Apostolical Religion of Catholicks and do clearly Vindicate that our Way from the foulest aspersions carnal wisdom could utter against plain Truth and Honesty Were that freedom which the Doctor 's provocations imply allowed Vs for a legal defence of our holy Church which the Law of Nations and our Venerable Courts of Justice afford the most wretched assayled Innocents in Case of fraud and Calumny against the Prevaricators of common peace It would be easy to manifest that as our Catholick Doctrin and Devotions need no other Champion then that Churches perfection and Majesty So her many Doctors neither want skill or will to put by those weak thrusts the Doctor makes at her reputation hitherto preserved without blemish by God's assured providence over her watchful Pastours The Doctor in this his Account of the Idolatry Impiety Fanaticism Divisions and what not of Iniquity of the Roman Church hath summ'd up high Criminations against Vs and then having laid the Foundations of his own Belief concludes the Church of Rome neither to be the Catholick Church nor any sound part or member thereof but whether he designed this his so peremptory a Charge as an Obelisk with GRATITUDO POSUIT to his thereby deluded Benefactours or to be a new Dioclesian Columne with NOMINE CHRISTIANO DELETO for this Age too he knows best who framed it sure it is his fundamentals are such that they subvert all Christian Monarchy and Obedience without which not only Christianity but neither any Church consisting of more then one member can long preserve its self from mouldring into Divisions and Desolation The truth is if ever any Opposer of our Catholick Faith has betray'd his own Cause this Doctor is notably guilty of it for his Imputations upon Vs are so evidently slanderous and the Principles of his own Religion so leakie that they have rendred the whole Reformation suspected of a Notorious Cheat in its growth and progress to all unprejudiced Judgments who by the sober ways of our Religious Worship our many great encouragements to piety our zeal in obseâ—ving Evangelical Counsels and our wonderful Vnity in the groundsills of our Christianity are clearly convinced of the holiness of our Catholick Truths and Maxims of Morality and notwithstanding our Adversaries loud declaimings against Vs even from the Infancy of Christian Religion to this Age when the Reformation was Vshered in by unclean licentiousness much different from the subtil Errours of Primitive Dissenters that neither Wit nor Malice of Man can overthrow the Faith and Moral Precepts of the Roman Church conveyed unto Vs in her sacred Canons whereas her Impugners still like Jonas Gourd wither in their blossom for the counsels of Men shall fail according to the good Gamaliels Rule but God and Truth have their Date everlasting Had the Doctor as carefully perused the large Records of our Church Histories which treasure up and continue to Vs the Body of our Christian Belief and Rules of manners unchanged through all its Ages by the Vigilancy of her Apostolical Governors by whom Primitive Truths have been unanimously conserved and conveyed unto Vs in their Original Purity as he has been in Rakeing over the foul ashes of ambitious Schismaticks Scepticks and Libertines the Cockle that still grows up with Christ's best corn and in frameing his Creed by the Square of his Truth discerning Reason that which Holy Scripture forbids to our utter peril he had discovered our Catholick Doctrin to be the very Image of her Divine Architype who IS and changes not and who has accordingly laid the Foundation of and built up this our Impregnable City of the Pilgrim Saints still guarding It with his own sacred Spirit and assisting her Visible Pastours in the Government of that his Catholick Body that as he hath promised Hell may not prevail against it Nor may the Doctor 's severe Account hope other success herein than the more powerful Swords of Pagan Cesars the Edicts of Senats and the wrath of Flamins of the Old Heathen Rome upon whose Ruins our glorious Lord hath by S. Peter built up this his everlasting Church in Communion wherewith only we can pretend to the Title of Christianity or to the promises which Jesus Christ has thereunto annexed if either Christ's promise or guift to or prayers for S. Peter may be allowed to have either power with God or any credit with Mankind Hence Sir the Doctor 's Book as it has bred admiration at his confidence and contempt of his Malice amongst all Catholicks who are better acquainted with their own Faith and practices then to be instructed in them or misled from them by any prevaricatours sounding brass or tinkling Cymbal so hath it raised up an amazement in some of the more learned Clergy of Protestants at that his boldness and caused them to suspect too their own cause which after so oft plaistring over their breach from Vs with manifold Vntruths at length needs buttressing up
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
is no traditional Revelation or that God has used fraud or that his scribes have been unsincere with us because there are some divine Revelations written or again that there is no external infallible proponent or obliging Authority as to matter of faith and manners necessary because every one is an infallible proponent to himself and can use his best endeavours to discern the true sense of Scripture in necessaries to Salvation or also that the Church of Rome is not the Catholick Church nor any sound part thereof because the true believer must sinceâ—ely endeavour to discover the true meaning of written Revelations according to the intention of Gods holy Spirit if I say these of such like discourses of the Dr be first principles we need not fear begging the question in any discourse whatsoever But I purpose not here Sir to give you a special report either of the Drs. account of our Calick Religion or of his Principles of his own intending not to exceed the limits of a preliminary Epistle or to forestall your TO KATHOLIKO or the labours of others who have already entred the field or perhaps will hereafter appear there to help on the Doctors Itch of writing against the Roman Church or for his own as he makes it his Profession though to as little purpose as if he had forbid his beard to grow or the Sun to walk his usual rounds for God will preserve the work of his own hands should the Dr. scribble or babble till his dooms-day However it will be worth the while if he thinks his cause deserves it to consider his own contradictions his own Fanaticism his misrepresentations of our Catholick Devotions of our dâ—ctrine of repentance and Indulgences his Principles considered aâ—d this your Friends KATHOLIKO TO wherein he may find diversion enough for the exâ—â—cising his truth discerning faculty and sober enquiry And since he now has so notoriously injured the Catholick Church by Infamations and Novelties and has confidently provoked the Doctors therof to appear in the Field We may in all justice expect he will not as hitherto set guards upon all approaches nor shall be then want wherewith to employ his admirable talents in those his dear Fields which lay so open for himself to ramble in Now Sir as for any Answer to these our Reply's you must be sure to arm your self with a large store of Resignation either to be told by the Doctor of his many more important employments abroad and necessary Occupations at home for propagating the Gospel or to hear of some new disperate Piece against Popery which some considerable Person expects from him or that he is sick of some disease much like Demosthenes his Quinsie for 't is usual with Persons of his opportunities in this case still to answer besides the purpose nor to heed whatever has been often said unto them but ever to crow and caper as if each of them were a Conqueror so true is it That although thou shouldest bray a Fool in a Morter amongst Wheat with a Pestell yet will not his foolishness depart from Him So unwilling to detain You any longer from the perusal of this your KATHOLIKON I remain SIR Your devoted Servant J. C. June 25. 1672. TO THE READER Courteous Reader FOr preventing mistakes thou art desired to take Notice that some few Copies of J. V. C. his Third Letter speaking to the pretended Fanaticism and Divisions of the Church of Rome stole abroad without either the review or allowance of the publisher and therfore they are not owned as the true and genuine Work of that Author that which is here presented unto Thee together with his first Epistle which refutes Image Idolatry imputed to that Church formerly Printed now reprinted with addition and likewise his Second Letter replying to Dr. Stilling fleets Host Idolatry and Saint Idolatry and also to his Hindrances of good Life and Devotion Which make the whole Posthume Work of that Worthy Author answering to that Doctors Account Most considerable Errata Corrected Image Idolatry Page 20. Line 13. Beades Host Idolatry â— Pag. 30. lin 8. do take pag. 37. l. 5. for all Hindrances c. Pag. 14. l. 22. he may not Pag. 18. l. 8 how the Sacraâ—ents p. 19. l. 23. oft no waies Fanaticism Pag. 11. lin 11. propagation pag. 12. l. 9. peace and. p. 23. Acab p. 16. l. 18. Feast of the. ΤΩ ΚΑΘΟΛΙΚΩ Stillingfleeton THe Book Sir which taken up with better affairs you sent unto me that I might after I had read it over draw an Abridgment of it for you with my own thoughts super-added in the close by way of a short Comment thereon is the second production as it seems of Doctor Stillingfleet against Popery Less displeasing it is I think to a Reader and nothing so tiresome as some other Books which have issued forth on that Side against the ways of Catholick Religion For there is some Truth in his Citations a seasoning of Salt and comical Wittiness sprinkled all over and no such thick gross venom of maliciousness wherewith other Books of that kind are overcharged appearing though much of it lie hid throughout his Book Indeed he perverts all things by his various subtilty But that is no more but what his own fame and interest here principally aimed at would require And we must give him leave to deride also and play and sport himself in his Book as a Leviathan in his own waters It is his pastiâ—ue and pleasure and a sweetness esteemed perhaps necessary to his life And who would be so ill-natur'd as to envy it him Besides it is a pretty piece of Rhetorick both fit and very efficacious to create in his Protestant Readers an opinion of his unerring confidence which is the one great end of his Labours And if we be thus kind he will in recompence of that our civility give leave I suppose to Catholicks who see him so jocund and supinely careless in his errors thence to conclude the strange inconsiderate security of the merry man But we must know Sir that this his elaborate Book against the Church of Rome as he speaks although it be his second yet is it not intended to be his last For If Catholicks have any thing to say quoth he either against our Church or in defence of their own let them come into the open Field from whence they have of late so wisely withdrawn themselvs finding so little success in it Thus he speaks in his Preface threatning if I understand him right another Knocker as stout a one as this can be if any one dare to appear against him or say so much as Boh to a Goose And these words of his import I think a Challenge called commonly a Defiance which Catholicks as soon as they had read thought it as much their duty as it sounded to be the Doctors desire to fit their Slings unto their Arms and meet him But the thing proved alas to be but a Copy of
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
his own that people may hear and read in both places not what Catholicks do but what they do not and yet so confidently charged upon them as if it were their right And thus he makes sport for himself but marrs none very careful not to obstruct but set open a way for his prattle which is a pretty piece of wit if it had a little honesty to make it rellish § 3. I do not perceive the Author to be so jolly in this his second Chapter as in his first Nor does he argue so positively against this great work of Christian Religion no less solid and certain then Christianity it self as he did before against the ceremonious use of an Image which Catholicks heed no otherways then ornaments of their Religion fruitful in so many sweet fragrant Roses and Lillies of their Martyrs and other blessed Saints And therefore Dr. St. winks himself that his reader may think here is no truth to be seen Full of doubts he is that Catholicks may be thought doubtful What can they show what can they urge for this their worship The authority of the Roman Church that is little worth A speedy quick and dextrous dispatch Catholick tradition where is it why do they not shew it who ever heard of it Poor man he cannot see wood for trees nor London perhaps in the midst of Cheapside except some body point at it The numerous volumns that have set forth this Catholick tradition as eminent as clear as universal as Christianity it self he now remembers them not no not any one of them can he now call to mind to lead him out of the maze he is in Will they pretend Scripture all that is disputed that is otherwise intérpreted If he continue in this his perplexity he will turn Atheist by and by For there is no one Article of Christian faith or Scripture that speaks it but has been disputed denied and otherwise interpreted What can Scripture saith he do without Councils and what are Councils but fallible mistaking businesses A sad plight the man is in but it is on his own accord and free will that his reader may imagine Catholicks who are all the world over in a peaceable possession of this their faith to be in the same pickle too He simply conceits Catholicks to have their faith to pick up some where and he cannot possibly tell where they should glean it with any assurance or quiet at least he would have it thought they cannot Bellarmin saith he declares by convincing arguments that Christ is God and to be worshipped but what Church what tradition what Counsel what Fathers tell us any such thing of the Host Alas poor dark man we must not then ever think to pick our Religion out of Bellarmin it seems And so must needs be in the same case with those Christians who lived before Bellarmins time that is to say either to have our Religion already without Bellarmins help or to seek it But where had Bellarmin yet a Child where had he his Faith before he wrote any thing surely not out of Bellarmins books It is a wonder the Dr. thinks not of this to help him a little to his sound sences But he is in his extasie and will be in it still And he tells us in this his rapture that Bellarmin proved by convincing arguments that Christ is God and to be worshiped but who ever said the like of the Host We know and remember well enough that the same Bellarmin who proves so laboriously that Christ is God declares also no less effectually in a whole treatise of the same volume of controversies both our Lords Divine presence in the Eucharist and our supream veneration love and honour there due unto him This we know and this the Dr. did himself know also before he drave himself into these his fained Apoplexies wherein he has indeed some imperfect glimpses of it even now that we may give him his due but the whole treatise in Bellarmin seems to him now at this his distance but as a small black mote such as an Eagle may happly appear to us flying in the Clouds five miles high above our heads an atome a little on this side nothing and therefore not worth speaking of And by this means he goes on glibly in his extacies and exclamations unto the end What ground have Papists what ground have they for this their worship Scripture Tradition Councels Fathers Church Reason where are they what are they worth who ever saw them why are they not shown Thus the good man raves Although all people before this last and worst age who ever in any place bore the name of Christians both Latin and Greek Bishopricks who filled up Europe and all the rest every where Armenians Habassins Maronites Jacobites Muscovites Melthites had all of them this one solemn adoration of God in the Eucharist as the great work of Christianity although antient Fathers especially the Grecians have left more record of it than any other parcel of Christian belief and practice although many great laborious and learned volumnes have been set forth in this last age both in France Germany and England whereby that Catholick piety is so demonstrated that none who considers things in earnest can refrain to acknowledg it yet does Dr. St. in his deep extasy forget all this and cryes out who ever said it who ever proved it who ever profest it And he hopes his Reader who is seldom wiser than his book will answer to his question and say No body No body Sir you are in the right and Papists are meer Fools and Blockheads § 4. The drift of this Chapter is to shew that we can neither believe our Lords presence in the Eucharist nor do any homage to God in him there figured according to his own solemn Institution as Crucified among us unto our reconciliation and peace And truly his discourse here tending thereunto is all of it so extraordinary slight that one cannot tell whether himself be serious or that he do indeed take us all for Mushromes so soft and foolish that we will be carryed away at his pleasure by any thing or indeed by nothing Suppose saith he we have the same Divine Revelation of Christs presence in the Eucharist as of the Divinity of his Person yet can we not possibly worship here as there because there it is said let all the Angels adore him but we have no command to worship the Host As though one and the same command Let all the Angels adore him would not serve indifferently both in Heaven and Earth both for Angels and men where ever he is present The Divine revelation of his presence needs no further command to ingage our worship nor is that said command Let all men honour the Son as the Father and let all the Angels worship him determined to any one place or to any one mode of his presence St. Paul worshipped our Lord in the fields of Damascus where he met him
after his Resurrection And yet he had never any command to worship him in those plains either of Damascus or Libanus The particular Revelation of his presence there was a Monitor sufficient of his duty The person of Christ saith he visibly appearing to us in any place may be worshipped but there is not the same reason of believing and seeing All other good Christians before Dr. Stillingfleet judged revelation and believing to be a surer testimony in matters of Faith and Religion than our seeing is Let us hear one of our Christian Doctors speak whose testimony will serve for all the rest We have not declared unto you saith St. Peter the vertue and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in any fabulous mythology but as we have seen with our eyes his own Majesty For he received from God the Father honour and glory by a vâ—yce conveighed unto him from that glorious magnificence saying thus This is my well beloved Son in whom is my sole content And this voyce we our selves heard derived from Heaven when we were together with him in the holy Mount And yet have we more firm Prophetical words unto which while you attend as to a light shining in an obscure place ye shall do well until the dâ—y dawn and the morning Star arise in your hearts Thus speaks St. Peter our Lords great Apostle who though he beheld our Lords Glory in the Mount and heard there a voyce from Heaven unto his honour yet he prefers before both these private testimonies the one general Authority of Divine Revelation as firmer and more authentical than either or yet both of them put together as the sole standing unextinguishable general light set up in the obscurity of this our dark life for the assured guidance of all men As if he had plainly told us that our private sences may be deceived especially in matters of Apparitions and transitory Visions imparted unto some one or other apart But prophetick speech and revelation this is general and the same to all this is unerring and firm this stands for ever Here have we plainly good St. Peters mind in this affair But our Doctor resolves otherwise Divine revelation although we have it will not serve his turn But if he could see Christ appearing to him any where he could worship him then and would perhaps do it There is not the same reason with him in believing and seeing and that is indeed true St. Peter sayes so like wise But St. Peter says that believing is firmer than seeing Dr. Stillingfleet avers that seeing is firmer than believing He would be afraid to act that upon meer Divine Revelation which he will not fear to do upon sight Could he see Christ appear to him he would worship him but he cannot by any means worship him where Gospel testifies his presence and he sees it not Nay he avers a little afterward that he can kneel down and worship Christ any where excepting only in the Eucharist where his corporeal presence is the cause of adoration He can do it where no cause obliges him to it no peculiar cause exacting it But in no wise will he be brought to it where his presence known by Revelation stands to claim it Gospel the custome of Christianity quite spoiles his Devotion and keeps him from doing that homage to our Lord in the Church which he could freely give him in a Market-place And if any should reply quoth he that blessed is he who hath not seen and yet believed he may know that this saying of his is impertinent to this present purpose because it relates only unto the Resurrection This he speaks not considering that the said assertion of our Lord Blessed is he who sees not and yet believes is indefinite and consequently general equally appliable unto all things our Lord ever acted or taught us either to believe or hope for And as our Lord used it to his Disciples in the business of the Resurrection so must it hold good equally in that of his Incarnation Ascention or any thing else he either spoke or acted for us And though it be applyed unto one thing it doth not therefore follow that it relates to nothing else nor is pertinent to any other mystery but that We may well and properly say according to Dr. Stillingfleet Blessed is he who hath not seen and yet believed the Resurrection But we must not say Blessed is he that hath not seen and yet believed the Incarnation Ascention Christs miracles in curing the Deaf Dumb Lame and Blind in raising the dead and preaching eternal happiness to his followers Unto all this that saying is impertinent with him it relates to nothing at all but the Resurrection And have we not here a solemn and peculiar wit and one that may well challenge the whole world to come forth into the open field against him But we must note here that the Doctor does not grant any such Divine Revelation which may either clearly speak our Lords presence in the Eucharist or justifie our worship in it only he permits it to pass for disputation sake and avers that if there were any such Revelation yet would it not suffice to free us from Idolatry and this he does to give us an experiment of his wit And that experiment we have had and must be content with it till more come § 5. It is here granted saith he that in the celebration of the Euchaâ—ist we are to give a spiritual worship unto Christ as well as to the Father performing that religious Act with a due veneration of his Majesty and power with a thankfulness for his goodness a trust in his promises and a subjection to his supreme Authority We grant also that external reverence may be shown in the time of receiving the Eucharist in signification of our humble and thankful acknowledgment for his benefits Here be a great many good things granted us here and I take them thankfully In his first Chapter he was so Zealously hot that he would grant us nothing no not so much as to hang up such pictures in our Chambers as he has himself looking upon him in his own but can we get this grant of his ratified and sealed by all the Protestants in England If it were the Church of England would look the better for it Nay will not be himself what he has granted us to day revoke again to morrow The Doctor should do well to read over now and then his own grants and denyals For he is not so fixed in them that one dare take his word as I could easily specifie both in this and other particulars But I refrain from that work now as needless Sir to you at least we have as much here granted as adoration requires But I cannot perceive he will have any of it relate to ought subsisting in the Eucharist but only to the Author of it who is in Heaven upon a consideration of his benefits which is some part of Catholick truth though
talking defending and proving things never revealed unto us or any ways edifying to our salvation yet if there had been any such opinion among schoolmen then had not Dr. Still been unconscionable however he had been impertinent Schoolmen do indeed agree unanimously that the sacraments of the law of Moses conferred no grace at all So the whole four schools of S. Thomas and Scotus Aureolus and Darandus and all the many Doctors of them teach however some of them speak otherwise of circumcision which was from the fathers But this simple talk that sacraments of the old law conferred grace by the disposition of the receiver the new without it as I never heard it before so does not he know where to find it except it be in some writings of Mr. Farnaby a late Schoolmaster in London Schoolmen are much puzled and cannot agree how sacraments confer grace whether as a moral or physical cause whether as inherent or assistant whether as an instrument or a sign c. I care not if I help the Doctor a little not in the schoolmens puzling but his own The schools of St. Thomas and all the Doctors of it in declaring the efficacy of Sacraments which all Christians equally believe teach that they work grace as a physical cause and as inherent and as an instrument of it under God The whole school of Scotus teaches that they work it as a sign onely as assistant and moral cause And if the Doctor please either to dispute for St. Thomas his way in Scotus his school or for Scotus his way in the school of St. Thomas he will find that they do not fumble or puzle or stand unresolved what to say but that they struggle stoutly and maintain incessantly and defend invinceably both of them their own proper ways and opinions without ever yielding one inch of ground to the opposer And though the matter be of small importance yet the glory or shame of overcoming or being overcome is thought by them all to be no small matter Never did Aeneas and Turnus rush with a more violent shock and and resolution than sometimes they do Rumpuntur nescia vinci Pectora and all for an opinion amongst themselves affirmed by one and gainsaid as resolutely by the other Dr. Still utterly unacquainted in these affairs may say as he pleases that they fumble and puzzle and are wholly unresolved But all this signifies no more but that he is wholly ignorant of what he speaks Cassander and Arnoldus both Catholicks do hold it to be a Catholick doctrine that Sacraments do no good without the devotion of the receiver and condemn the other opinion of some amongst them as wicked Here the man names us two of our Doctors who hold it to be a Catholick doctrine that Sacraments do no good without the devotion â—f the receiver which we all believe But he names us not any one who ever said it was a Catholick doctrine that they do all their good without any disposition or devotion of the receiver which is the opinion he has put upon us all this while without any fear or wit Did Cassander and Arnoldus hold right or wrong Were they with us or against us If against us in faith then were they not Catholicks themselves if with us then is all Dr. Still's discourse against us here both impertinent and false But I perceive well enough he neither knows what faith means nor what it is to be a Catholick A most certain truth it is that Sacraments do no good to the receiver without a congruous disposition and devotion in him And all food whether spiritual or corporal if it do no good must needs do some harm And this is something more than he tells to be said by Arnoldus and Cassander § 5. Another enemy to piety is their prohibition of Scripture and keeping from people Gods holy word which might direct and comfort them This charge bears something more of colour and appearance than any or all the other four And yet things rightly understood it is nothing else but a meer colour and appearance For all the whole fourteen hundred years before PRINTING was found out in all which time those sacred writings were so rare that not one of a thousand could get them it was the labour and obligation of a Priest still night and day to read and study those books and not for himself oneâ—y and his own edification but to gather out thence such holy words as might direct encourage and comfort people in the many occurrences of life For which reason the Bible was then called Liber Sacerdâ—tis the Priests book but especially and above all to collect from thence what he thought might best conduce unto devotion and piety towards God And this was not hard for them to do after they had once by their united industry gathered out of the said Bible a complete Breviary for themselves For this lying now by them easily could they turn unto any thing they should have need of on any occasion Thus they did before PRINTING was found out But no such thing is ever done by Ministers who leave their people both to buy themselves a book and use it when they have it as they please And now since the Invention of PRINTING peoples hands are so filled with holy gospels psalms hymns canticles holy histories prayers meditations manuels and the like contents of holy scripâ—ure drawn out more amply for them in spiritual books that noâ—hing at all is there in faith or good manners wherewith they are not as fully acquainted as their Clergy And all this as it is nothing else but Gods word so is Gods word nothing else but this Therefore is not Gods word prohibited or kept from people in the Church of Rome as the doctor affirms Indeed the whole letter of scripture as it lies is permitted to none but such as have abilities to use it But what then Even our ordinary people have more now than they had in the best ages of Christianity who digesting well what they had saved their souls by it and that is enough And the little they had was all that is to be had for that purpose I have Sir often had occasion to speak of this subject and must be fain now in this my speedy haste to borrow some help from my words elsewhere delivered whose sence though it be perfect enough in my mind yet if I do not help my self thence I shall spend time which I cannot now spare in thinking how to word and express it to you Thus then it is written of this business in one place Catholicks have the sum of scripture both for history and dogm delivered them in their own language so much as may make for their salvation disintangled from the tropes and schemes and ambiguous phrases wherein it was first written good orders being set and instituted for their proficiency therein the sum of all divine truths belonging to Christianity and the whole counsel of God
owners excluded by violence do preach Fifthly it set out the glebe land and tyths whereon they live Sixthly it founded our Corporations raised our famous Universities and furnished their Libraries with books Seventhly it has preicribed and delivered us the forms not of the Sacraments onely but of any sort either of ecclesiastical or civil instalments Eighthly it has triumphed over Jews and Pagans notwithstanding their power and furious opposition by Gods blessing and her own innocence prudence and constancie and laid asleep the very heresies that have risen up against her in all ages out of her own bowels All these things that I may speak no more are not the works of fanaticism they are not the properties power or gestures of fanaticks Fanaticism rises up suddenly and dies like a mushrom utters a fond defiance and so vanishes destroys but builds nothing chatters a little like a moon calf and is seen no more § 2. That our Doctor may proceed somewhat doctor-like he tells us in the begining of this his Chapter what he means by fanâ—ticism By it saith he I understand an enthusiastick way of religion or resisting authority under pretence of religion This is his desiartion of it But whether it be one definition or two it is not easie to say Indeed and truth it is no definition at all but onely an obscure dark wording of things so purposely ordered that he may put what he pleases in the circle of fanaticism besides himself It is saith he an enthusiastick way of religion But what is enthusiastick what does way mean in these our affairs and what is a way of religion A definition ought to be plain and familiar without either amphibology or trope and more intelligible than the thing defined This is not so Enthusiasm in Greek is but the same thing as Inspiration Were then the Apostles and Prophets who were inspited and taught that their inspired way of religion the fanaticks here spoken of or no Secondly what is meant by way Is it a way chalked out for a man by his just and legal guids or a way invented by himself This is a main business and perhaps the very essence of fanaticism and yet it is not here exprest Thirdly what is a way of religion Is it religion it self or some certain fanciful gestures in the exercise of it or some odd mode in defending it or some peculiar manner of applying it unto the conduct of our lives A clergy man may either in a pulpit or at an altar have many simple wild gestures and yet be a sound Christian for all that But is such a one to be understood here to have an enthusiastick way of religion He who makes it a part of his religion to defame his innocent neighbours wrongfully persuading people that he does God good service therein is this man a fanatick and yet he practises a very mad way of religion To side first with our English prelacie and when it is overborn by unlawful violence to turn unto them who overthrew it and as soon as it is reestablished to come back again to it is this fanaticism I am sure it is a mad way of religion He that disables his own Protestant Bishops in one book being a Protestant himself and in another inveighs heavily against some Jesuists for resisting their Papist Bishops whom himself also does not approve is this man a fanatick yea or no And yet he follows and treads a very strange mad way of religion So that obscure general and tropical words are so far from keeping him out that they include rather and hem in Dr. Still himself and wholly inclose him in his own circle of faâ—aticism Again his other part or other whole definition of fanaticism A resisting authority under a pretence of religion is obscure enough too For there be many sorts of resisting and many sorts of authority and many sorts of pretences and many religions pretended and yet not all of them fanatick All Protestants in their first reformation resisted all authority of the whole Catholick world both ecclesiastical and civil and that under pretence of religion a new way of religion invented by themselves opposite to the Catholick way wherein they had all been born and bred Are all these and their successors unto this very day fanaticks or no He will say no perhaps because they had good reason to do it But do not Quakers whom Dr Still speaks openly to be fanaticks say also that they have good reason to withstand and desert our Protestant English Church O but no body says so but themselves Neither did any but those first Protestâ—nts say they had any reason at all but the whole Catholick world rose up and condemned them So that we have got but little light by this definition of his left wholly in as much obscurity as ever he was himself after he had been puzling among the Schoolmen Truth is we are neither to seek into logick or into dictionaties for the meaâ—ing and signification of fanaticks or fanaticism For the word as it relates to religion here in England is of voluntary imposition never before applied unto any Sects of Christianity till my Lord General Monk used it in Parliament some few years ago to express those men who under pretence of their new invented doctrines contemned and rose up against all authority and waged war and overthrew both Church and State before them unto the utter impoverishing and desolation of the Land These our great General never to be mentioned in England without honour called Fanaticks that is to say mad foolish blasted men who preferring their own instable conceits for they had now fallen and shivered into many Sects before solid obedience unto Church and State rooted up what ever was fixt for the general good of all men and contenting themselves with the pillage of the Land could settle nothing at all themselves either of religion or government in the end These he called Fanaticks And in his great prudence he made choice of that new word upon hopes that every one of these several sects would lay the epither upon his neighbour as indeed they did And amongst these men yea the very chief and ringleaders of them did Mr. Still our Doctor joyn himself And yet does he here in his own little subtilty lay the whole ignominy now upon the Quakers as a burthen for the younger brothers to carry And yet were they hardly born when the work of fanaticism in England was accomplished By all this we may easily discern what fanaticism means But yet we must notwithstanding content our selves with the definition he has given us so far as it can bear any fixt or certain sense and so proceed § 3. The Church of Rome saith he is both ways fanatical both in an enthusiastick way of religion and resisting authority A man would wonder how this charge should be made good of a Catholick Church whose religion is ever settled and delivered by tradition from generation to generation still
things that can be said on both sides hic nunc and ponder them deeply before a judgment can result And it often happens amongst them that they will determin in one year that action to be rejected which was in another time expedient and good only upon change of circumstances It is in my mind a vain labour to write long discourses about probable opinions as some do For if we speak of an opinion in a strict sence an opinion tending to action and yet separated or abstracted from all circumstances of person time place means motives events and connexions with ill or welfare which no writer of a book can see such an opinion is nothing at all in the world but a meer fantosme more apt to mislead then secure any action of life And he that goes to a book to learn there how he is to act in any business he is about goes like one blind man to another blind guide to lead him For this reason all antient good Christians ever had their consciences gâ—ided by living Oracles of men who laying the general rule of religion before them still gave that for safest counsel which all circumstances considered came nearest to the intent and scope of Gospel Truly I cannot but grieve to see men talk so much as they do now adaies about opinions For we are to hold nothing but Gospell and our holy Christian tradition and no opinions at all in religious affaires And if opinions do rise therin as needs they must sometimes by variation of circumstances that is still to be rejected which most swarves from the intent of holy Gospel or which is all one hath least in it of good and most of ill Let not only three men but three millions of men hold any thing to the breach of this rule it is not to be heeded They who write books of moral actions and conscience can know nothing either of the person actually concerned or of the various circumstances which must bring this action into a just existence let them in their abstracted aery problems say what they please nor innumerable events therof although there be some opinions that no circumstance can justify Nor do Catholick Kings and Princes ever heed at all what people talk in their Schools and Academies unless it proceed to action If any do act well he has peace and if any do ill death is at his door however opinions go But of this enough Doctor Still threatens us here with a more accurate examination of these things from the authour who wrote against the Apology for Catholicks I know not who that Authour is But I can tell him thus much that the right honourable Authour of that charitable Apology stands now actually ready with his Pen in hand to entertain him as he hath once already done And that Protestant writer will find him still a main strong Castle not to be blown down or so much as shaken by his impertinent waves All after ages shall make honourable mention of that noble man when his adversary shall be swallowed up in the deep of oblivion Not only Catholicks but many worthy Gentlemen even amongst our Protestant countrymen have grieved in their hearts to see us lie open to so many grievous defamaâ—ions of men But this noble Person ventured to speak and write an Apology for us And if no man should be valorous truth â—ow kept under lock and key for a whole hundred years would never appear as it is and in its own shape § 18. Sir one mistake of mine committed in my first packet wherin I told you that this piece of Fanaticisme was Doctour Stillingfleet's own proper invention I must here revoke For it is not so I wondred indeed that in his arguments against the Church of Rome set down in the begining of his book wherin is mention made of that Churches Idolatry hinderances of a good life and divisions there was not there any one word of Fanaticisme which here fills up a whole chapter in his book compiled as himself speaks in defence of those arguments But I was inlighten'd in this my doubt by a meer chance For meeting with a Protestant Stationer I asked him if he ever heard of an Authour called Foolis or Foulis who is quoted once or twice by Doctour Stillingfleet O quoth he presently Foolis is an asse he printed last year an ecclesiastical history wherein he says that Papish Saints were fanaticks I had the book but threw it out of my shop It is sold now up and down the streets for wast paper I considered then with my self that the Doctour's arguments were made as himself speaks two Years ago this his book in defence of them is but now printed and Foolis his book a Year ago came forth My riddle is now out The Doctour never dreamed of fanaticisme till he learned it of Foolis And yet does he not quote this Foulis in all his Chapter of Fanaticisme though he does in another ambitious it seems to have the honour of the invention ascribed to himself alone Nor is it hard since Foolis his book is become wast paper to find out not the Master only from whom our Doctour learned his lesson of fanaticisme but the very chair also wheron he sat when first he learned it fith bookish men are very apt to peruse the wast paper they are then to use But it was a lucky chance for Doctour Stillingfleet He applied therefore his wast paper and saying in his heart Here is a gallant matter for a whole new Chapter in my book he rose and tied up his breeches ΤΩ ΚΑΘΟΛΙΚΩ DIVISIONS UNto this fifth Chapter I shall speak Sir very little becaus it is wholly parergicall and besides his or what ought to be his purpose A Reader who looks upon his book conceives him to speak of divisions which are contrary to their unity of faith And yet the Doctour by a multitude of stories which make up this chapter exemplifies only and declares divisions that have been in several times and places contrary to the unity of affections in matter of honor wealth and power some in Italy some in France some in England some in America some about their School conceptions some about power and jurisdiction liberty and freedom and the like So that all that has happened in the Catholick world the space of a thousand years contrary to that peace humility love tendernes justice mercy patience prudence which religion requires so much of it as he found related in Catholick authors to his hand is the miscellan hodg podg of this his fifth chapter called Divisions not ever intended by any of those Catholicks authors unto Dr. Still purpose unto which the said stories are wholly improper 1. The story of the wars and differences in Italy nine hundred years ago about Church-lands managed on one side by Charles Martell King Pepin Charlemaign Ludovicus Pius Lotharius and others for the Popes right against Emperours and their Lieftennants on the other And here by