A papist misrepresented and represented

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Preface

OF THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

The very numerous editions this work has gone through, sufficiently show how acceptable it has been to the public. Nothing indeed more useful could be devised, especially at the time it was. first published, when uninformed prejudice had produced so many unfavourable impressions in the mind of every denomination of people, and animosity against the Catholic Religion had been raised to its highest pitch, by a constant misrepresentation of its doctrines, and false accusations laid to its charge. Few men examined beyond report ; and very few were acquainted with the genuine and real doctrines of the Catholic Church. Yet it is an undeniable fact, that the Catholic doctrine could not be attacked with any success but by misrepresentation, and that it wants only to be known, to obtain the suffrages of upright men, and to silence the most inveterate of its enemies. No man was so proper for this task, as Mr. Gother, who had himself maintained alike those prejudices, in common with other Protestants, till, advanced in judgment, reason, and age, by a strict examination he found he had been deceived. The result was, his joining that Church, which he had opposed ; and after proper studies* becoming one of its Clergy. In these pursuits, had any concealed and wicked doctrines been a mystery, no doubt his integrity to truth would have again separated him. So far from that, he endeavoured with success to communicate to others the treasure he himself enjoyed, and with many others, the Right Rev. Dr. Challoner, owed to him the choice of Catholic unity. And after passing through the highest honours of the College and Prelacy, at his death he left this Selection, with several other publications, to rectify the prejudices^he still bewailed to lurk in his country. This work therefore is not new, but contains the sincerest truths professed in the Catholic Church, which hates nothing so much as falsehood and misrepresentation. The republication of this little work eunnot fail to be gratefi 11 to all Roman Catholics, who will find in it the clearest exposition of their principal tenets; moreover, unprejudiced men, of other denominaforrs, cannot but be satisfied in finding means of rectifying their notions in religious matters ; and the most obstinate will at least be left without excuse, in shutting their eyes to the most shining raj T s r f tm%

Introduction

The father of lies is the author of misrepresenting. He first made the experiment of this black art in Paradise ; having no surer way of bringing God's precepts into contempt, and making our first parents transgress, than by misrepresenting the command which their Maker had laid upon them. And so unhappily successful he was in this first attempt, that this has been his chief stratagem ever since, for maintaining himself in his usurpation, and propagating error and vice amongst men, by discrediting virtue and truth ; and therefore there has nothing of good yet come into the world, nothing been sent from heaven, but what has met with this opposition ; the common enemy having employed all his endeavours to bring it into discredit, and render it infamous by misrepresenting it. Of this there are frequent instances in Scripture, and more in Church history. The truth of it was experienced on the person of Christ himself, w T ho though he was the Son of God, the immaculate Lamb, yet he was not out of the reach of calumny, nor exempt from being misrepresented. See in the gospel how he was painted by malicious men, the ministers of Satan, as a profane and wicked man, a breaker of the Sabbath, a glutton, a friend and companion of publicans and sinners, a conjuror, a traitor, a seducer, a raiser of seditions, a Samaritan, and full of the devil; he hath Beelzebub, said they, and by the prince of the devils, castelh he out devils , Mark iii. 22. There being no other way of frightening the people from embracing the truth, and following the Son of God, but by thus disfiguring him to the multitude, reporting light to be darkness, and God to be the devil. The disciples of Christ every where met with the like treatment. The people were stirred up against St. Stephen by misrepresentation ; because they heard he had spoke blasphemous words against Moses, and against. God, Acts vi. 1 1 : and against Paul, because they were told he a 2

INTRODUCTION.

taught all men every where against the people, and polluted the holy place. Acts xxi. 28. , They charged him also with being a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition amongst all the Jews throughout the world. Acts xxiv. 5. Neither did these calumnies, these wicked misrepresentations stop here ; he that said the disciple is not above his master, arid if they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household, Mat. x. 24. 25, did not only foretell what was to happen to his followers then present, but also to the faithful that were to succeed them, and to his Church in future ages, they being all to expect the like treatment ; so that though they should be ever so just to God and their neighbour, upright in their ways, and live in the fear of God, and the observance of his laws ; yet must they certainly be reviled and hated by the world, made a by-word to the people, have the repute of seducers, and be a seandal to all nations. And has not this been verified in all ages ? See what was the state of Christians in the primitive times, when as yet vice had not corrupted the purity of the morals of the generality of the faithful. It is almost impossible to believe in what contempt they were, and how utterly abominated. Tertullian, who was an eyewitness, gives us so lamentable an account of the Christians in his time, that it is able to move compassion in stones. He tells us, so many malicious slanders were dispersed abroad concerning the manner of their worship, and their whole religion described, not only to be mere folly and foppery, but also to be grounded on most hellish principles, and to be so full of impieties that the heathens believed a man could not make profession of Christianity, without being tainted with all sorts of crimes ; without being an enemy to the gods, to princes, to the laws, to good manners, and to nature itself. So that Christianity was wholly infamous among the heathens, condemned and detested by all, and most bloody persecutions raised against the professors of it, while they were guilty of no other crime but adhering to the truth. And it was these calumnies, these false accusations, invented to cry down the Christian religion,

INTRODUCTION. Vll

that obliged Tertullian to write his apology, wherein he declared to the world that Christianity was nothing like that which the heathens imagined it to be ; that idolatry, superstition, impiety, cruelty, treachery, conspiracies, &c. was none of their doctrine, but condemned and detested* by them ; that these crimes were only the malicious inventions of the heathenish priests, who finding themselves unable to withstand the force of Christianity, had no other way to preserve themselves in repute, and keep the people in their error, than by an ugly, odious, and most horrid vizor, a damnable scheme of religion, and then holding this forth to the world, and crying out, This is the religion of the Christians, these are their principles : behold their ignorance,' their stupidity, their profaneness ; behold their insolence, their villanies : a people unsuiferable in a commonwealth, enemies to their country, and their prince. And thus representing it as monstrous as they pleased, they brought an odium upon as many as owned that name, and condemned them for follies and crimes that were nowhere but in their own imagination.

And now, when by the propagation of Christianity, and the exertions of her professors, heathenism was pretty well extinct, yet was not the mouth of malice stopped ; the calumnies, w 7 hich had been invented by the infidels, being taken up by evil Christians. No one going out from the communion of the church of Christ, but what did, by the reviving of scandals, and the addition of fresh ones, endeavour to make her infamous, and blacken her with such crimes, as could be thought most convenient for rendering her odious to all. It being looked upon by as many as ever went out of her, the best means to justify their separation, and to gain to themselves the credit of orthodox Christians, to paint her out in all the antichristian colours, and represent her as hellish as wickedness could make her. It is strange how much she suffered in this point from the Manichees, and from the Donatists, and how much pains it cost St. Augustine to prove their accusations to be mere calumnies, principally intended to raise prejudices in the minds of the people against

V1I1 INTRODUCTION.

her; that so being convinced by these hellish artifices, of her teaching unsound and profane doctrine, wicked principles, and human inventions instead of faith, they might never think of going to her, to learn the truth ; nor even so much as suspect her to be the Church of Christ. This, St. Augustine complains, was the chief cause of his continuing in the error of the Manichees so long ; and that he impugned with so much violence this Church. And therefore, after he was come to the knowledge of the truth, he discovered this to the world for undeceiving others, who were caught in the same snare ; making it part of his confessions, Confess. I. vi. ch. 4. When I came to discover that, says he, T mingled joy and blushes, and was ashamed, that I had now for so many years been barking and railing, not against the Catholic faith, but only against the fictions of my carnal conceits. For so temerarious and impious was I, that those things, which T ought first to have learned frcm them by inquiry, I charged upon them by accusation; readier to impose falsehood, than to be informed of the truth. And thus T blindly accused the Catholic church ; it being now sufficiently clear to me that she taught not the opinions I so vehemently persecuted. And this he did, deluded and deceived by the Manichees. And now since it is certain, that this has not been the case of St. Augustine alone, but as many almost as have given ear to the deserters of this church ; nay, is it not at this day the case of infinite numbers, w T ho following that great Father, when as yet in his errors, do not inquire, how this thing is believed or understood by her, but insultingly oppose all, as if so understood as they imagine; not making any difference betwixt that which the Catholic church teaches and what they think she teaches ; and so believing her to be guilty of as many absurdities, follies, impieties, &c. as the heathen did of old. It is evident there is as much need now of apologies as ever there was in Tertullian's or St. Augustine's time : not apologies to vindicate w 7 hat is really her faith and doctrine, but rather to clear her from such superstitions, profaneness, and wicked principles, as are maliciously or ignorantly charged upon her

INTRODUCTION. 1*

And though the number of calumnies, the insincerity of adversaries, the obstinacy of a biassed education, render a performance of this kind a just task for a Tertullian's, or St. Augustine's hand-; yet because I find no such eminent pen engaged in this design at present ; and the showing of the true religion in its own colours, seems a duty incumbent on every one that is a lover of truth ; I will endeavour to pull off the vizor from suffering Chris tianity, and apologize for the Catholic faith: that faith, I mean, maintained by those primitive Fathers, with so much vigour and zeal, which being first planted in the head city of the world by St. Peter, hath been propagated throughout the universe, and derived down to us by many Christian nations, in communion with that See, under the protection of the Holy Ghost, and the charge of a chief Pastor, which beginning in that great apostle, has continued in a visible succession to these our days.

This faith it is, for which at present I design to make an apology, which having been in all ages violently opposed, does at this time most wrongfully suffer under calumnies and false imputations. I will endeavour therefore to separate these calumnies and scandals, from what is really the faith and doctrine of that church ; I will take off the black and dirt which has been thrown upon her, and setting her forth in her genuine complexion, let the world see how much fcirer she is than she is painted; and how much she is unlike that monster which is shown for her. And because the members of this Church are commonly known by the name of Papists : I think I cannot take a more sincere, open, and compendious way, in order to the completing this design, than by drawing forth a double character of a Papist : the one expressing a Papist in those very colours, as he is painted in the imagination of the vulgar, most foul, black, and antichristian ; with the chief articles of this imagined belief, and reputed principles of his profession. The other representing a Papist, whose faith and excercise of his religion, are according to the direction and command of his Church. That so these two, being thus set together, their difference and disproportion n^be clearly discern-*

What use then does the Papist make of pictures or images of Christ, of the blessed Virgin, or other Saints ? Why, he keeps them by him to preserve in his mind the memory of the person represented by them; as people are wont to preserve the memory of their deceased friends by keeping their pictures. He is taught to use them, so as to cast his eyes upon the pictures or images, and thence to raise his heart to the things represented, and there to employ it in meditation, love, and thanksgiving, desire of imitation, &c. as the object requires: as many good Christians, placing a Death's head before them, from the sight of it take occasion to reflect often upon their last end, in order to their better preparing for it; or, by seeing Old Time painted with his forelock, hour-glass, and sithe, turn their thoughts upon the swiftness of time, and that whosoever neglects the present, is in danger of beginning then to desire to lay hold of it, when there is no more to come. These pictures or images having this advantage, that they inform the mind by one glance, of* what in reading might require a whole chapter. There being no other difference between them, than that reading represents leisurely, and by degrees ; and a picture, all at once. Hence he finds a convenience in saying his prayers with some devout pictures before him, he being no sooner distracted but the sight of these recalls his wandering thoughts to the right object; and as certainly brings something good into his mind, as an immodest picture disturbs his heart with filthy thoughts.

And be* * cause he is -sensible that these holy pictures and images represent and bring to his mind such objects, as in his heart he loves, honours, and venerates; he cannot but upon that account love, honour, and respect the images themselves. As, whosoever loves a husband, a child, or friend, cannot but have some love and respect^br their pictures; whosoever loves and honours his Sng, will have some honour and regard for his image. Not that he venerates any image or picture, for any virtue or divinity believed to be in them, or for any thing that is to be petitioned of them; but because the honour, that is exhibited to them, is referred to those whom they repre sent. So that it is not properly the images he honours, but Christ and his Saints by the images : as it is not properly the images or pictures of kings or other men that we respect or injure ; but by their images or pictures we respect or injure the persons themselves. All the veneration therefore he expresses before images, whether by kneeling, lifting up the eyes, burning candles, incense* &c. it is not at all done for the images, but is wholly re^ ferred to the things represented, which he intends to honour by these actions. And how, by so doing, he breaks the second Commandment, he cannot conceive ; for he acknowledges only one God, and to him alone gives sovereign honour; and whatsoever respect he shows to a crucifix, picture, or image, seems to him no more injurious to any of the commandments, than it is for a Christian to love and honour his neighbour, because he bears the image of God in his solil ; to kiss and esteem the Bible, because it contains and represents to him God's word ; or to love a good preacher, because he minds him of his duty ; all which respects do not at all derogate from God Almighty's honour ; but are rather testimonies of our great love and honour of him, since for his sake, we love and esteem every thing that has any iespect or relation to him.

OF WORSHIPPING SAINTS.

The Papist misrepresented , makes gods of dead men : such as are departed hence, and are now no more able to hear, see, or understand his necessities. And though God be so good as to invite all to come to him, and to apply themselves to their only and infinite Mediator, Jesus Christ ; yet so stupid is he, that neglecting, and as it were, passing by both God and his only Son, and all their mercies, he betakes himself to his Saints, and then pouring forth his prayers, he confides in them as his mediators and redeemers, and expects no blessing, but what is to come to him by their merits, and through their hands : and thus, without scruple or remorse, he robs God of his honour.

The Papist, truly represented, believes there is only one God, and that it is a most damnable idolatry to make gods of men either living or dead. His Church teaches him indeed, (and he believes,) that it is good and profitable to desire the intercession of Saints reigning with Christ in heaven : but that they are gods, or his redeemers, he is no where taught ; but detests all such doctrine. He confesses that we are all redeemed by the blood of Christ alone, and that he is our only Mediator of redemption : but as for mediators of intercession, (that is, such as we may lawfully desire to pray for us) he does not doubt but it is acceptable to God we should have many. Moses was such a mediator for the Israelites, Job for his three friends ; Stephen for his persecutors. The Romans were thus desired by St. Paul to be his mediators; so were the Corinthians, so the Ephesians, Ep. ad Rom. Cor. Eph. So almost every sick man desires the congregation to be his mediators by remembering him in their prayers. And so the Papist desires the Blessed in heaven to be his mediators ; that is, that they would pray to God for him. And in this, he does not at all neglect coming to God, or rob him of his honour ; but directing all his prayers up to him, and making him the ultimate object of all his petitions, he only desires sometimes the just on earth, sometimes those in heaven, to join their prayers to his, that so the number of petitioners being increased, the petition may find better acceptance in the sight of God. And this is not to make them gods, but only petitioners to God ; it is not to make them his redeemers, but only intercessors to his Redeemer ; he having no hopes of obtaining any thing, but of God alone, by and through the merits of Christ ; for which he desires the Saints in heaven, and good men on earth, to offer up their prayers with his; the prayers of the just availing much before God. But now, how the Saints in heaven know the prayers and necessities of such, who address themselves to them, whether by the ministry of angels, or in the vision of God, or by some particular revelation, it is no part of his faith, nor is it much his concern it should be determined. For his part he does not doubt, but that

God, who acquainted the prophets with the knowledge of things, that were yet to come many hundred, years after ; that informed Elisha of the king of Syria's counsel, though privately resolved on, in his bed-chamber, and at a distance, 2 Kings , vi. 12. can never want a means of letting the Saints know the desires of those who beg their intercession here on earth ; especially since our Saviour informs us, Luke xvi. that Abraham heard the petitions of Dives, who was yet at a greater distance, even in hell ; and told him likewise the manner of his living, while as yet on earth. Nay, since it is generally allowed, that even the very devils hear those desperate wretches, who call on them ; why then should he doubt that the Saints want this privilege, who though departed this life, are not so properly dead, as translated from a mortal life to an immortal one ; where, enjoying God Almighty, they lose no perfections which they enjoyed while on earth, but possess all in a more eminent manner ; having more charity, more knowledge, more interest with God than ever ; and becoming Eke Angels ; Luke xx. 36. And as these offered up their prayers for Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, Zach. i. 12. so undoubtedly they likewise fall down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of the Saints, Apoc. v. 8.

OF ADDRESSING MORE SUPPLICATIONS TO THE VIRGIN MARY THAN TO CHRIST.

The Papist, misrepresented, believes the Virgin Mary to be much more powerful in heaven than Christ, and that she can command him to do what she thinks good : and for this he honours her much more than he does her Son, or God the Father; for one prayer he says to God, saying ten to the Holy Virgin.

The Papist, truly represented, believes it damnable to think the Virgin Mary more powerful in heaven than Christ ; or that she can in any" thing command him. He honours her indeed as one that was chosen to be mother of God, and blessed amongst all women; and believes her to be most acceptable to God in her intercession for us : but owning her still as a creature, and that all she has of excellency is the gift of God, proceeding from his mere goodness. Neither floes he at any time say even so much as one prayer to her, but what is directed more principally to God ; because offered up as a thankful memorial of Christ's incarnation, and acknowledgment of the blessedness of Jesus the fruit of her womb. And this without imagining that there is any more dishonouring of God in Iris reciting the Angelical Salutation, than in the first pronouncing of it by the Angel Gabriel and Elizabeth : or that his frequent repetition of it, is any more an idle superstition, than it was in David to repeat the same words over twenty-six times in the 136th Psalm,

OF PAYING DIVINE WORSHIP TO RELICS.

The Papist, misrepresented , believes a kind, of divinity to remain in the Relics of his reputed Saints, and therefore adores their rotten bones, their corrupted flesh, their old rags, with divine honour ; kneeling down to them, kissing them, and going in pilgrimage to their shrines and sepulchres. And he is so far possessed with a conceited deity lying in those senseless remains, that he foolishly believes that they work greater miracles, and raise more to life than ever Christ himself did.

The Papist, truly represented, believes it damnable to think there is any divinity in the Relics of Saints, or to adore them with divine honour, or to pray to their rotten bones, old rags, or shrines, or that they can work any strange cures or miracles, by any hidden power of their own. But he believes it good and lawful to keep them with veneration, and to give them a religious honour and respect. And this he thinks due to them, inasmucli as knowing himself obliged to respect and honour God Almighty from his heart ; he looks upon himself as obliged to respect and honour every thing that has any particular relation to him : but this with an inferior honour ; such fts the Jews showed to the Ark, to the Tables of the Law, to Moses's rod, to the Temple, to the Priests. Such as we generally allow the Bible, because it contains God's w T ord ; to the Church, because it is God's house ; to holy men and priests, because they are God's servants. And so he does to Relics, because they appertain to God's favourites : and being insensible things, are yet sensible pledges, and lively memorials of Christ's servants, dead indeed to this world, but alive with him in glory. And more especially because God himself has been pleased to honour them, by making them instruments of many evident miracles, which he has visibly worked by them ; as is manifest upon undeniable record. And this he believes as easy for God Almighty now, and as much redounding to the honour of his holy name, as it w T as in the old law to work such miraculous effects by Moses's rod, by Elias's mantle, after he was taken up into heaven, 2 Kings ii. 14. Eliseus's bones, 2 Kings xiii. 21, and infinite other such like insensible things : and also in the new Law, by the hem of his own garment, Matt. ix. 21. by the shadow of St. Peter, Acts v. 15. by the napkins and handkerchiefs that had but just touched the body of St. Paul, casting out devils, and curing diseases, Acts xix. 12. and such like. And thus by having a veneration and respect for these, he honours God : and does not doubt, but that they, that contemn and profane these, do the like to God, as much as they did, w T ho profaned the bread of proposition, the Temple, and vessels that belonged to it.

OF THE EUCHARIST.

The Papist, misrepresented, believes it lawful to commit Idolatry, and makes it his daily practice to worship and adore a breaden god, giving divine honour to those poor, empty elements, of bread and wine. Of these he asks pardon for his sins ; of these he desires grace and salvation; these he acknowledges to have been his Redeemer and Saviour, and hopes for no good but what is to come to him by means of these household gods. And then, for his apology, he alleges such gross contradicb 2 tiong, so contrary to all sense and reason, that whosoever will be a Papist, most be no man ; fondly believing, that what he adores is no bread or wine, but Christ really present under those appearances ; and thus makes as many Christs, as many Redeemers, as there are Churches, Altars, or Priests. When, according to God's infallible word there is but one Christ, and he not on earth, but at the right hand of his Father in heaven.

The Papist, truly represented, believes it abominable to commit any kind of idolatry; and most damnable to worship or adore a breaden god, or to give divine honour to the elements of bread and w T ine. He worships only one God, who made heaven and earth, and his only Son, Jesus Christ our Redeemer ; who being in all things equal to his Father, in truth and omnipotency, he believes, made his words good, pronounced at his last supper; really giving his body and blood to his Apostles ; the substance of bread and wine being by his powerful words changed into his own body and blood, the species and appearance of the bread and wine remaining as before. The same he believes of the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, consecrated now by Priests: that it really contains the body of Christ, which was delivered for us ; and his blood which was shed for the remission of sins : which being there united with the divinity, he confesses whole Christ to be present ; and him he adores and acknowledges his Redeemer, and not any bread or wine. And for the believing of this mystery, he does not at all think it meet for any Christian to appeal from Christ's word to his ow T n senses or reason, for the examining the truth of what he has said, but rather to submit his senses and reason, to Christ's words in the obsequiousness of faith : and that being a son of Abraham, it is more becoming him to believe as Abraham did, promptly, with a faith superior to all sense or reason, and whither these could never lead him.