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A41211
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An appeal to Scripture & antiquity in the questions of 1. the worship and invocation of saints and angels 2. the worship of images 3. justification by and merit of good works 4. purgatory 5. real presence and half-communion : against the Romanists / by H. Ferne ...
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Ferne, H. (Henry), 1602-1662.
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1665
(1665)
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Wing F787; ESTC R6643
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246,487
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512
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of authority as well as excellency of grace and holiness and still there is such Authority in the Bishops and Pastors of the Church and that Authority not Civil properly but Ecclesiastical and upon that Authority a subjection due to them Heb. 13.17 in things pertaining to Religion and Conscience and the honour or worship thereupon due to them as it may in his large sense be called Religious which we every where grant without prejudice to our or advantage to his Cause so may it better be call'd the Civil Ecclesiastical worship because as in the world so in the Church there is a policy or government for the Church below as a City and society within it self and does also with that above make up the whole City of God Therefore are we call'd by the Apostle Concives fellow Citizens Eph. 2. But 2ly Albeit Saints and Angels belong to the higher part of this City the triumphant and as to the state they enjoy are of higher dignity and glory then any in the militant or part below yet being not capable of that conduct of souls as the Governours and Pastors in the lower city are they cannot challenge that subjection from us nor the worship that arises upon it Nor can they by reason of their distance receive from us those tenders of worship and honour which are applied to holy men living * Eo cultu dilectionis societatis qu in hâ—c vita Sancti homines contra Faust l. 20. l. 21. S. Aug. determins it thus We honor the Martyrs with that worship of love and fellowship wherewith Holy men in this life are worshiped Of fellowship with reference to the Apostles fellow-citizens and of holy men living with reference to supernatural gifts and graces and the honour thence arising such as we give to men upon the account of holiness and such graces though they have no authority over us and let the Saints departed have all such honour inward or outward that they are capable of Lastly If this Author will drive those places of Scripture he cited for authority of Saints and Angels so far as to prove the worship due which they give unto them as his Mr. the Cardinal endeavoured by the like places to defend the invoking of them He may take answer from S. Aug. determining what manner of worship is due unto them as above the worship of love and fellowship and * Charitatis non servitutis Aug. de vera Relig. c. 55. elswhere the worship of charity not subjection or service or from S. Paul Eph. 2. saying we are fellow-Citizens or from the Angel Rev. I am thy fellow-servant And if they will still make use of such places as this Author alleaged it will be easie to shew how inconsequent the argument is from such places of Scripture how insufficient to prove such a worship as is allowed by the Church of Rome To conclude This Author will not say we are mistaken Recapitul of the premises when we affirm that all worship properly religious and according to his first and stricter sense is due to God and not to be exhibited to any Creature Nor can he say we are mistaken in proving that truth by this Scripture Thou shalt worship the Lord c. unless he will deny this Scripture speaks of worship properly religious It remains then that our mistake if any must be in concluding by this Scripture their creature-worship to be unlawful That we are not herein mistaken appears by what has been said already First by that which is said above to shew the worship they exhibit by Oblations Incense Invocation Vows adoration of Images belongs and must be reduced to that sort of worship which is proper to Religion in the first and stricter sense Not only the effect of Religion but part of it I mean as performed and misapplyed by them and I would it were not the greater part of their Religion Secondly by the insufficiency of what this Author has said to the contrary in putting off the imputation from themselves and fastning the mistake on us As first his pretence from the immediate signification or bare importance of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the text which speaks a bowing or prostration of the body and is common to the religious and the civil worship to the worship of God and the Creature and accordingly all the instances and examples he brought speak no more then that outward reverence and worship shewen in bowing the body Whereas this comes not home to our charge laid upon their worship and cautioned against by this Scripture viz. their worship exhibited to creatures by the above said acts and exercises of religion and devotion Secondly his pretence of religious in his larger sense as sufficient which is as short of the purpose as the former for so all the duties of the second Table as we saw above may be called religious i. e. pertaining to and commanded by Religion but here we speak of the acts of worship proper to religion or exhibited in the way and exercises of Religion and Devotion which in their worship are such as are proper to the worship of God the same by which our religion and devotion to God is exercised as Vows Invocation c. or such as are proper to the Heathen worship in the exercise of their religion and devotion to their greater or lesser deities as adoration of their Images whom they pretend to worship All this will farther appear by the next part of this Scripture and him only shalt thou serve Him only shalt thou serve Mat. 4.10 Here he would fasten a mistake upon us Of Latria or service properly due to God by a misunderstanding of the word Serve pa. 28. why so because having examined all the places of Scripture where this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is here translated serve he findes it signifies that religious worship which is exhibited to God never used for a religious service done to a Creature as to a Creature pa. 31. Again that word is never used but for the serving either of the true or of a false God when it is referred to worship belonging to religion And he provokes any Protestant to prove the contrary pa. 32. But how did he conceive we understood the word when we affirm the same thing which to find out he bestowed as he saith some days study by examining all the places of scripture where the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used we say it is very true that in all the scripture neither that word nor any other is ever used to express religious service done to a creature as to a creature that is as due to it Again we affirm that this word when it is referred to worship belonging to Religion is never used but for serving either the true or a false God and therefore it is easily seen whether the Romanists be mistaken in their Inference therefore there is another religious service which may be
worship of the dead exhibited to them by those that overlive them or remain after them or as Lactantius tells us they are call'd * Superstiriosi sunt qui superstitem memoriam defunctorum colunt eorumque Imagines celebrant Instit l. 4. c. 28. superstitious who worship or religiously honour the remaining memory of the dead and celebrate or honour with religious service their Images And now let this Author if he can defend his Catholick Roman Church in her pretended religious worship from this charge of superstition and then consider if she be not also so far chargeable with Idolatrous practice as those applications to Saints and Angels those expressions of worship which they make by vows oblations prayers and adorations shall be found to yield to the creature any thing proper to God To conclude we have seen how the worship which they religiously The honour due to Saints and Angels of what sort iâ— it but unduly give to Saints and Angels stands charged now if for the perfecting of this discourse it be enquired to what sort of worship that honour which we acknowledge due to Saints and Angels the thing which he said we yield may indeed be reduced we have two sorts of worship apparent and unquestionable Divine and Civil the divine is due to God by reason of his supereminent majesty and by reason of his dominion over the whole man and contains all the religious worship and service all the obedience man can give him according to any of his commands all the honour he can return him upon any due occasion The civil is due to man upon that dominion he has over others according to the outward man and affairs of this life and contains the honour subjection and obedience due to Magistrate Masters Parents Between these two the Cardinal whom this Author follows every where fixes the worship or honour due to a finite supernatural excellency such as is in Saints and Angels And it is true that if we give the creature no more then is commensurate or due unto it the honour given will not be a Divine or Religious nor yet a Civil worship properly because given without respect to dominion or subjection But there is a worship or honour due to persons to whom we owe not subjection as they are endowed with qualities and excellencies though not supernatural as Wisdome Learning Justice and other Vertues which worship is not Divine or Civil properly but as some call it the worship or honour of Moral reverence due to all moral vertuous endowments or as others Cultus officiosus officious or out of courtesy So likewise the honour due to gracious and supernatural gifts and qualities may though in a higher degree be call'd the honour of moral reverence making but one kinde of both because the motive or ground of both is a thing of moral perswasion arising from the worth and excellency of gifts and endowments without the reason of dominion Greg. de Val. Val. in Thom. 2.2 disput 6. qu. 11. punct 5. has a phrase for it not much differing telling us the worship due to Saints is not an act of religion immediately but singularis observantiae of a singular observance or respect to saints that it is not religion immediately which procures them that esteem commensurate to excellent Creatures but peculiaris observantia i.e. that special observance reverence w ch such excellencies deserve Now this is to speak what is due to saints not what the Romanists allow them or suffer their people to give them w ch often falls into the way and acts of Religion by their vows prayers raise oblations to Saints That this worship or honour which may be call'd an act of moral reverence or of officiousness or of special observance if they please is of a differing kind from the religious or divine and may be differenced from the civil or humane cannot be denied but if asked to which of the two it is reducible or analogical we say to the civil For gifts and virtues which for their principle and Original are supernatural are for their use civil i. e. for the good of the concives fellow Citizens members of the same society of the Church yea Saints and Angels are concives fellow Citizens with us Eph. 2.19 So that civil worship might be divided into that humane civil according to the Polity of the world and this of moral reverence which is analogically civil according to the Polity of the Church society But they must reduce it to Religious worship which they divided into Latria and Dulia as above ehre its made medius cultus a middle worship between Divine and Civil as the Card inal and they all do Bel. de Beat. Sanctor l 1. c. 12. to bring it nearer to the Divine and then to make it intrench upon the divine or religious worship by such applications and expressions as we heard above As for their usual starting hole to which they commonly retire in this point of worshipping of Saints Angels Images to say they have no such acknowledgment of them as of Gods or infinit excellencies it will not secure them so long as they yeild them some acknowledgment not commensurate to them and express it by such acts and exercises of religious worship as above said We shall find the Heathens made the like excuses for the worship they gave to the inferior Deities and to their Images Nor could the people have such a conceit of Moses's dead body or carcass as of an Infinite and divine excellency which yet God hid from them least they should make an Idol of it as the Cardinal saith * Bel. Apol. pro respons sua ad Reg. Jacob. cap 8. Sect. jam vero that is least they should do to it and give it such acts of worship as the Church of Rome doth to Angels to Saints and to their Reliques Now least there should be made some pretenceâ— of plea from what the Author said of supernatural worship and excellency Of the Authority and Rule that Saints and Angels are said to have over us which he seemed to raise not only upon supernatural gifts and graces but also upon that dignity and authority which is more then humane or Civil and truly by him call'd Ecclesiastical such as was in Prophets and Apostles and withall mentioned several places of Scripture to imply the dignity and authority in the Saints and Angels as 1 Cor. 6.2 that they shall judge the world Rev. 5.19 that they shall reign upon the earth And that the Angels were Promulgators of the Law Act. 7.53 Captains of the Armies of God Jos. 5.14 Controlers of Kingdomes Dan. 10.12 So he pa. 17.18 I say least by this Authority which he seems to ascribe to them he should imply for he does not plainly infer a subjection to them and upon that account a duty of worship therefore to exclude all pretences It may be said 1. That in Prophets and Apostles there was a dignity