the Pope's Legates who presided and the Vicars of the Oriental Patriarchal Sees who assisted in it O my God! is it come to this that an Inferiour Rector of one Pâ—rochial Church whose name is scarce known but in the Bills of Mortality and was never heard of in the List of any General Council shall dare to condemn as foolish the Sentence of the most August and Venerable Tribunal upon Earth Was he not afraid of that dreadful Sentence of our Lord He that shall say to his Brother how much more to so many Fathers of the Church Fool shall be guilty of Hell-fire What Order and Discipline can be observ'd in the Church if it shall be lawful for any private person upon presumption of his own wit to contemn and deride the Decrees of those whom he is bound under pain of being accounted as a Heathen and Publican to hear Will he plead for his excuse that he follows the Judgment of another Synod held not long before in Constantinople in which boâ—h the making and honouring of sacred Images was condemned Let him shew that to have been a lawful Council and not a Conventicle as in reality it was being called by the Secular Power and wanting both the consent and presence of the Patriarchs of the East and chiefly of the Bishop of Rome by himself or Legates whom the Fathers of the fourth General Council of Chalcedon acknowledge to have presided over them as the Head over the Members and without whose Authority according to the Canon of the Church no Decrees could be valid None of which defects were in the Council of Nice Besides that divers of the Bishops who had voted in and subscribed to the false Synod of Constantinople came and abjur'd its Doctrine in the Council of Nice and among them Gregorius Bishop of Neocaesarea the Ringleader of the Faction Yet Dr. St. takes up and abets the Arguments of that Pseudo-Synod as if they had never been retracted and anathematized as impious by the chief Author of it and scoffs at the Answers of the Synod to them as insufficient I pray God he may one day imitate him in his Repentance as he hath done hitherto in his Passion against the Images of Christ and his Saints Examples we know move much and possibly it may be neither unprofitable to Him nor ungrateful to the Reader to set down the form and manner of that Bishops Recantation and his Reception into the Church § 2. Being brought into the Council by a Person of honour sent from the Emperour Tarasius Patriarch of Constantinople ask'd him If hitherto he had not known the Truth or knowingly had contemn'd it His answer was that he hop'd it was out of ignorance but desir'd to learn And when Tarasius bad him declare what he desir'd to learn he answered Forasmuch as this whole Assembly doth say and think the same thing I know and most certainly believe that the Point now agitated and preached by this Synod is the Truth and therefore I beg pardon for my former evils and desire with all these to be instructed and inlightned For my Errours and Crimes are great beyond measure and as God shall please to move the hearts of this Holy Synod to Compunction towards me so be it Here Tarasius expressing some doubt he had least his submission might not be sincere but that he might speak one thing with his mouth and have another in his heart Gregorius cry'd out God forbid I confess the Truth and lie not neither will I ever go back from my word Whereupon Tarasius told him that he ought long ago to have given ear to what the Holy Apostle St. Paul teaches saying Hold fast the Traditions which ye have received either by our word or by our Epistle And again to Timothy and Titus Avoid profane Novelties of words For what can be a greater Novelty in Christianity and more profane than to say that Christians are Idolaters To this Gregorius return'd that what he and his Partizans had done was evil and we confess saith he that it was evil So it was and so we did by which words it seems he made a particular confession of what evil they had done and therefore we beg pardon of our faults I confess most Holy Father before you and this Holy Synod that we have sinned that we have transgressed that we have done evil and ask pardon for it Upon this it was ordered that he should bring in his Confession the next Session of the Synod which he did of the same tenour with that of Basilius Bishop of Ancyra and others in the first Session viz. that he did receive and salute or give Veneration to the Holy and Venerable Images of Christ and his Saints and anathematize such as were not of the same mind as he expressed himself in the vote he gave after he had by the Sentence of the Popes Legates and the consent of the Synod been restored to his Seat upon his repentance This is recorded of Gregorius Bishop of Neocaesarea in the Acts of the Council of Nice to his immortal Glory May it be imitated with no less Glory by the Rector of St. Andrews May he take to himself what St. Ambrose said to Theodosius Secutus es errantem sequere poenitentem This I heartily pray for and to this end shall take the pains to shew with what little Reason he abets the Arguments of that false Synod and derides the Answers of the Nicen Fathers If in doing this I make his vanity appear here as elsewhere I have done it is but what St. Austin tells us we ought so much the more to endeavour towards those who oppugn the Church by how much the more we desire their salvation And I know not how possibly himself could have laid it more open than in the Ironical Title of That Wise Synod he gives that very Council to which his Leader in the Charge of Idolatry the afore mentioned Gregorius submitted himself as to a most lawful Council confessing that what those Fathers so unanimously taught was the Truth and the Tradition of the Catholick Church Now what they taught was this that the Images of Christ and his Saints were to be placed and retained in Churches that by seeing them the Memory and Affections of the Beholders might be excited towards those who were represented by them as also to salute and give an honourary adoration or respect to the said Images like as is given to the figure of the Holy Cross to Chalices to the Books of the H. Gospels and such like sacred Utensils but not Latria which as true Faith teacheth is due onely to God What he could find in this definition for which the Fathers deserved from him the title of Fools I cannot imagin unless he will have it to be Idolatry to reverence the Books of the Holy Gospels or the sacred Utensils of the Altar But in this the Council is vindicated by Eminent Divines of
us For This saith the afore-cited Bish Forbes is a Testimony in which all Dissenters wonderfully exult and even Triumph But those of the Church of Rome saith he do answer and indeed truly that St. Austin speaks here of Invocation in the Liturgy and at the Altar where forasmuch as Sacrifice is truly offered to God though he think many of the Church of Rome mistaken in their Explication of it Invocation is to be directed to God alone And that this was St. Austin 's meaning in that place would have appeared from the Reason he gives in the words immediately following the Doctor 's citation had he not most conveniently left them out Viz. Because the Priest saith St. Austin sacrifices to God and not to the Martyrs although he sacrifice in Memory of the Martyrs for he is the Priest of God and not of the Martyrs Who sees not that St. Austin here speaks of Invocation made by the Priest at the Offering of the Sacrifice § 4. But that He did allow at other times the direct Invocation of Saints I have already shown in the 4th and 5th Chapters from the Examples of the devout Mother exacting of St. Stephen the restoring her Son to Life and of the poor Man who prayed to the Twenty Martyrs to be cloathed Both which St. Austin highly commends and relates them no doubt as patterns for our Imitation In his 17th Sermon de verbis Apostoli he expresly affirms that it is an Injury to pray for a Martyr to whose Prayers we ought to be commended And in his Book of the Care for the Dead c. 4. 5. he saith that the Christians of his time did not only recommend the Souls of their deceased Friends to God but to the Martyrs also as their Patrons to be helped by them And this he gives for the Reason why they desired to have their Bodies buried neer the Shrines or Sepulchers of the Martyrs Viz. That the Memory of the Place where they were buried might excite their Friends to recommend them by their Prayers to those very Saints These Testimonies are so clear that they cannot possibly be evaded by any shift or pretence whatsoever of Rhetorical Apostrophes or Poetical Flourishes or General Wishes that the Saints would pray for us And although Bishop Mountague with his piercing Wit being press'd with these Authorities sought every chink to escape out at yet Bish Forbes c. 4. p. 320. confesses it was in vain and that he is very sorry that the said Bish Mountague gave so just a cause to Joannes Barclaius to expostulate with Him for imposing upon the credulity of his Soveraign and others in this matter And had he been now alive he might with grief enough have pronounced the same as I doubt not but many other learned Protestanas do of Dr. Stillingfleet As for what he quotes to have been observed by Lud. Vives if his Observation were true that many Christians in his time did offend in re bona in a thing good in it self which the Doctor leaves out because they did saith he no otherwise worship Saints than they did God himself the contrary whereof is asserted by St. Austin of the Christians of his time it imports at most but an Errour or Abuse in some particular Persons such as St. Austin saith in the place above-cited against Faustus that whoever falls into it is to be reproved by sound Doctrine that he may be either corrected or avoided § 4. From St. Austin's Testimony of the custome of Christian People in his time I passed to his Practice and for a Proof of it I instanced in the Prayer he made to St. Cyprian after his Martyrdome in these words Let blessed Cyprian therefore help Us with his Prayers c. This the Doctor calls an Apostrophe that is a Counterfeit Invocation such as Mr. Perkins said we English men make to a Bowl when we pray it globum rogamus to rubb or run And the comparison being so Parallel between Mr. Perkins's Globum rogamus and St. Chrysostom's Sanctos rogamus I cannot but wonder that English-men who are generally esteemed the best Invocators of Bowls in the World should nevertheless be no better Invocators of Saints For if the devotion be the same it can be no more Idolatry to call upon the Saints than upon the Bowls But to speak to the words of St. Austin Let B. Cyprian therefore help us with his Prayers whoever considers the Motive alledged by Him why he addressed himself to St. Cyprian which was for that in Heaven He saw more clearly the truth of that Question of which himself had formerly doubted and St. Austin was then treating of and the necessity he had of his Prayers as being yet in this Mortal Flesh and labouring as in a dark Cloud will easily see that it was not a counterfeit but a true and serious address to Him for the assistance of his Prayers And Chemnitius no doubt understood it so when speaking of this very passage of St. Austin's invocating St. Cyprian This saith he Austin did suffering himself to be carried away with the Times and Custome Well but for all this the Doctor will have it to be a wish rather than a Prayer and he doubts his saying the like to St. Austin Let Blessed Austin now help me with his Prayers would not be taken by us for a renouncing the Protestant Doctrine and embracing that of the Church of Rome To this I Answer although the word Adjuvet taken Grammatically be of the wishing or Optative Mood yet taken with all the circumstances above-mention'd and the custome of Christian People of that time approved by St. Austin it imports as much a formal request as if a Child should say to his Father Benedicat Let my Father bless me For it is not so much the Mood as the Mode that is use and custome which determins the sense of words And if the Doctor will hazard a tryal of it Let him but profess as St. Austin did that we ought to celebrate with Religious Solemnity the Memories of the Martyrs to be assisted by their Prayers and that it is good and lawful to commend our selves to their Prayers and upon this account say as St. Austin said Let B. Cyprian help me with his Prayers I dare undertake his own Party shall take it for renouncing the Protestant Doctrine and embracing that of the Church of Rome But he is so far either from making this Profession with St. Austin or saying to him Let B. Austin now help me with his Prayers that he would have the Reader to take it for one of the superstitions which he would give us to understand crept in after the Anniversary Meetings at the Sepulchers of the Martyrs grew in request For S. Austin himself saith he affirmeth that what they taught was one thing and what they did bear with was another speaking of the customes used at those Solemnities And is it possible he could think so great a
of Addresses Holy Peter pray for us For why I pray was such a Decree made and why did the Fathers of that Council fear lest the publick prayers should be corrupted with such kind of addresses if there were no such custome at that time Either the Dr. corrupts the words of his dear Master Calvin or it is manifest they imply it was the custome at that time to say Holy Peter pray for Us. And to make this clearer I shall set down 1. What Calvin really saith 2. What Bellarmin answers to him And from both it will appear that Calvin supposes there was such a custome and withall that Calvin hath corrupted the words and meaning of the Council and D. St. misrepresented those of Calvin 1. What Calvin really saith is this viz. That it was anciently forbidden in the Council of Carthage that direct prayer or Invocation be made to the Saints at the Altar And it is probable the reason was for that those Holy Men when they could not totally Repress the force of an evil Custome they thought good at least to put this restraint upon it lest the publick prayers might be corrupted with this Forme Holy Peter pray for Us. This is what Calvin saith And who sees not that the custome no wonder if He call it an ill one whose force he supposeth the Council would but could not totally Repress was this form of address Holy Peter pray for Us And He that sees this must shut his Eyes if he sees not that in Calvin's Opinion it was the Custome of that time however reprovable he would make it to say Holy Peter pray for Us. For how could he make the restraining that Custome to be the reason of the Law if he did not suppose there was such a custome and that a forcible one too But then again who sees not that for fear the Reader should see this the Dr. most conveniently left out of his citation those words of Calvin which were most material to the present purpose viz. that the Decree was made to forbid direct praying to Saints at the Altar and the Reason in his Opinion why those Fathers made that Decree was to restrain the force of an evil custome which they could not totally Repress For had these words been put down the thing had been too clear to be denied viz. that Calvin acknowledged there was such a custome at that time As in a like case if the Elders should make a Sanction that hereafter it shall not be lawful for Dr. St. to misâ—report the words and sense of their Patriarch Calvin and I should say that in my Opinion the Reason would be to restrain the force of an evil custom which they could not totally repress in him of doing it in most of the Authors he cites I dare confidently aver he would not stick to charge me that I said he had such a custom which if he think good to do the many instances I have brought of his insincere dealing in this kind wil more than sufficiently acquit me 2. What Bellarmin de sanct beat li. 1. c. 16. answers to this Objection of Calvin is that Calvin corrupted the words and sense of the Council when he said that what it forbad was to make direct Prayer or Invocation to Saints at the Altar because the Council speaks not at all of praying to Saints but only ordains that the prayer of him that sacrifices be directed to the Father and not to the Son He says indeed that Calvin by his Logick deduces that because prayer is to be directed to the Father therfore the Saints may not be Invocated and then farther that the Council decreed that that form of Invocation Holy Peter pray for us should not be used And this I can easily believe was Calvins ultimate design in corrupting the Canon of the Council But where doth Bellarmin say that there was no such custome in St. Austin's time or that Calvin said there was no such custome at that time Why then is it made a wonder that if I saw the words in Calvin or Bellarmin I would produce them The Reason was to make the Reader believe that himself could not possibly be guilty at that very time of a crime which he imputed to his Adversary But whoever considers the nature of the cause he hath undertaken will see no cause to wonder at this procedure because it is the natural effect of such a cause to put the maintainer upon the desperate shift of mis-representing the words and sense of Authors and no Man wonders at a natural effect especially if it be frequent as this of the Doctor 's is § 7. But now the blaze is spent and there only remains a little smoke viz. that I may as well the next time bring St. Austin's Testimony for worshipping of Martyrs Images and Angels because he saith he knew many who adored Sepulchers and Pictures and had tryed to go to God by praying to Angels What this as well relates to I cannot tell but I am sure he uses the same Art here in bringing these Testimonies against us which he did before in alledging the custom of those who made themselves drunk at the Sepulchers of the Martyrs For either S. Austin speaks here of the Errours of such as were professed Hereticks or if any who professed themselves Catholicks fell into them they were the Errors of particular Persons though many and justly reproved by him Whereas the Custom of Invocating the Saints to pray for us was the Universal practice of Christians at that time not reproved but owned practised and abetted by the most Religious Bishops and Fathers of the Primitive Church and by St. Austin himself as hath been shown and by more or all after their time as Mr. Thorndike confesses Wherefore if the Doctor be still resolved to keep his standing against so great a strength of Authority and give no more satisfactory account hereafter than he hath already done of charging the Roman Church with Idolatry It is manifest that his Foot sticks fast as the Psalmist saith in the deep Mire where no ground is or to speak in Mr. Thorndike's language in the depth of Schism From whence that he may be drawn out before the Flood run over him is the hearty wish of Him who honours his Person and Parts whilst he detects his Sophistry and refutes his Calumnies FINIS * S. Catharine ‖ Calvin Anagr. Lucian Pag. 14. Just Weights c. 1. Art 35. Epil 3. part p. 363. Appeal c. 23. Confer at Hampton-Court pag. 20. 40. Cyprian Angl. p. 242. Ep. 17. ad Marcellam Li. 7. de Bapt. cont Donat. c. 1. Tract 18. in To. Sozomen li. 8. Hist c. 5. Niceph. li. 13. c. 11. S. Leo Ser. 4. de Quad. Li. contr Epist. fund * Liberty of Propâ—â—cy Sect. 20. P. 550. * I suppose he means â—o less Lib. 3. de adorat c. 1. S. Chrysost Hom. 3. in Ep. ad Rom. Arnob. Contra. Gent. li. 6. S. Aug. in Psal