be performed to himself Psal. 50. 15. As God is called the Father of Mercy so is she called the Mother of Mercy as Christ is called the Tree of Life so is she and a hundred more such divine Attributes they give unto her as you may read in their printed Books of Litanies and Prayers to her sufficient to make a man tremble with horror and amazement to read the wilde as well as wicked blasphemous Titles their extravagant fancies invent to give her Let any Christian Soul who can but read the Scripture and understand common Sence judge if this be not Idolatry for the Titles they give her do much more imply a Deity than the word God and so is far greater Idolatry There is one thing more worthy your consideration in this business All the learned Papists know that the ancient Fathers did urge as a main Argument to prove the Diety of the Holy Ghost the Ubiquity of his operation in the hearts of the faithful all the world over a clear evidence of a divine Power which no Creature is capable of and will not the same Argument hold to prove the Deity of the Blessed Virgin if she as the Papists believe be able to be helpful to all her devoted Supplicants from all the four Quarters of the World at the same time Upon her great Festival-days how many millions of Papists do at the same instant say unto her that Hymn Ave Maris Stella wherein are conteined these words Thou that art the meekest of all make us meek and chaste grant unto us a holy life and safe journey These and a hundred the like Expressions they use unto her Now I pray observe sure the Papists suppose she can do this which they pray for otherwise they are ridiculous to pray for it so then they believe that she can work upon the hearts of her supplicants all the World over making them meek and chaste c. at the same time which was the Argument to prove the Deity of the Holy Ghost doth it not in like manner prove the Deity of the Blessed Virgin and doth not this their belief and practice make her a Goddess and doth not this make them Idolaters in full measure what did the Heathens more Nay doth not the praying to her or any other Saint at so vast a distance and supposing them to hear imply a Deity in them Is not this far beyond the sphere of Activity in any Creature Can any Creature hear their praying voice one quarter of a mile sure then they must be of a Divine power to hear so many millions and millions of miles much more is it a Divine property to see the thoughts of their hearts at that distance or indeed to see them at all were they never so nigh for God alone is the searcher of hearts yet the Papists often offer up to them the meditation of their hearts as well as the voice of their mouth making both mental and vocal Prayer unto them is not this apparently to make them Gods As for that rare excuse That though the Saints hear not our prayers much less see our hearts at this distance yet they see all in God's infinite comprehensive Heart Hold I beseech you whither are we come to excuse Idolatry I fear with horrid Blasphemy are the Saints then the searchers of God's Heart and know all his secrets this is Deity in the highest degree no but God of his infinite Goodness discovers this to the Saints may I be so bold as to ask who discovered this to the Papists why St. Francis St. Dominick St. Ignatius and many others in their Seraphical Meditations have been rapt up into the third Heaven yea far higher than St. Paul into the ninth Heaven and have had this and much more reveiled to them Pardon me I humbly conceive 't is far more unlawful for these Seraphical Saints to utter these words than it was for Saint Paul to utter what he heard in the third Heaven Sir I hope neither you nor any rational Man will build his Faith and Salvation upon their vain Legends well may they twattle these things to Children not to serious Men who build their Faith on the infallible Word of God alone where we find not one word of all this but much to the contrary Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve If God only sure no other Wherefore St. John in his Revelation tells us how he was twice severely rebuk'd with a Cave for his worshipping the Angel See thou do it not I am thy fellow-servant worship God But the Papists will needs have this to be a Complement only of humility in the Angel to this great Apostle St. John truly a very severe form of Complement See thou do it not which sounds to me rather a Threat than a Complement and in the Original the Greek sounds more a Threat than our English expresses and sure we should the rather take it so because St. Paul doth so expresly forbid the worshipping of Angels as a Will-worship according to to the Will and Doctrine of men under pretence of humility but is indeed out of Pride vainly puff'd up in their fleshly minds intruding into those things they have not seen and obtruding them as saving Doctrines upon their ignorant Proselytes which thing all that are godly wise according to Scripture must needs hold foolish and sinful all being so fully laid out unto us by St. Paul Col. 2. and again 1 Tim. 2. 5. There is one Mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus Come unto me all ye that travel and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Call upon me in the time of trouble and I will hear thee The Scripture saith their is one Mediator between God and man the Papists will needs have many whether more foolishly or more sinfully 't is hard to say for have they any Mediator more powerful or more merciful or more willing to hear and help them nay put the Power the Love the Mercy of all Saints and Blessed Virgin together is it greater is it equal is it near in any degree can it add one degree to the infinite Power and Love and Mercy of Christ God and Man is it not blasphemy to affirm it is it not then great sinfulness great madness to seek any other as if he were not complete as if he could not or as if he would not do what he promises to do Will not his Power his Promises his Command oblige these Self-will-worshipping Papists to come to this One Mediotor no but they will go to others to their own wilful destruction As for that poor weak excuse That we may as well or rather pray to Saints in Heaven to pray for us than pray Men on Earth to pray for us 't is not worth the answering the disparity is so great for the latter is an act of mutual Charity to which we are commanded the former an act of Religious worship
A LETTER Written to a FRIEND Concerning Popish Idolatrie LONDON Printed for and are to be Sold by Charles Harper at the Flower-de-luce over against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street 1674. A Word to the READER A Person whom I greatly honoured being much inclined to the Popish Religion was as I heard much altered by the ensuing Letter which made me very industrious to get first a View and then a Copy of it And conceiving it may prove very beneficial to others also the same way inclined I thought my self in Conscience bound to present it to publick view I hope without offence to the Writer who seems zealous to withdraw men from such Erroneous and Idolatrous Worship and therefore doubtless will be pleased to see the fruit of his labour much encreased by the Blessing of God upon it Amen SIR I Am very sorry to find that the Books I directed you to do not give you full satisfaction but still you press me to say something of my own and what can I say that hath not been already said Really most of the Books that are written in these latter days of the World are but as the same Cards shufflled and dealt into a new Game But you tell me their Discourses are so long as you cannot carry them in your remembrance the Quotations so numerous pro and con as there is no end in searching after them their Distinctions and way of arguing many times intricate and seem to you rather subtil Evasions than solid Answers in sum they do not satisfie nor work much upon your Understanding In answer whereto I must consess I have found by experience that Mens Heads are like Locks with several Wards which no Key will open but one fitted to those very Wards So Mens Understandings must be fitted and opened with such a way of arguing as suits with their Apprehensions and Fancy and many times it happens that weaker Arguments in a method agreeable unto them prevail more than the Scholastick pressing form This gives me some encouragement to set Pen to Paper with hopes that I may chance to light on that Method as may give you more agreeable satisfaction especially you so much desiring it weak Remedies strongly fancied for good have done great Cures when Learned Physicians have failed I shall be as brief as may be and the rather because longer labour may have as little success as the larger Tracts of others have had You seem much to applaud and lean on Doctor Thorndick's Judgment who in his Just Weights condemns those who charge the Papists with Idolatry and therein both wrongfully accuse them and also cast a wrong and foul Prejudice on our Church and by necessary consequence make it no Church For if the Papists be Idolaters their Church is not a true saving Church it is no Church Idolatry as he conceives being inconsistent with a saving Church 't is as a deadly poyson which presently destroys the vitals and brings inevitable death And then if the Papal Church be no saving Church no Church now they were none when those of the Reformation came out of it their Church being the same then as 't is now and so consequently our Church can be no Church coming out from theirs which is none Wherefore Dr. Thorndick is very desirous that the Papists gross erroneous Worship should be called Superstition rather than Idolatry for first this grievous accusation much incenses them by making them no Church and makes our Division the wider and cuts off all hopes of Reconciliation with them Secondly it makes by consequence our Church no Church as he said we descending from them As to the first I wonder that this good Man so knowing in Roman Principles could hope for Reconciliation with them but by wholly submitting to them for their Prime Principle being Infallibility whereon all that Babel is built the pulling down of any one Pinacle eradicates the very Foundation all being so link'd together with Infallibility that one and all falls together 'T is therefore bootless to talk of meeting them half-way or three quarters and a half who are so fettered to this Infallible Pillar you must be chained to it also no other way of being one with them As to the second of nullifying their Church by Idolatry and our own also as from them if they by their Infallible Spirit will declare the consequence against themselves let it be so but I fear it not against us They cannot deny but the Head of their Church Pope Marcellinus from whom their Popes ever since descended was an Idolater in the grossest sence sacrificing to a Heathen Idol in the time of Dioclesian's persecution if this makes them no Church let them be no Church but then we are none hold there I am not bound to grant though I pass the Antecedent much less the Consequent First 't is not so easie and quick a thing to determine what nullifies a Church some things are plain and easie some not 'T is certain the Jewish Church in our Saviours time was a Church wherein salvation was to be had for our Saviour bid the people then hearken to those who sat in Moses Chair and do what they thence commanded yet they were guilty of devillish practices opinions also but still they believ'd in the only true God and acknowledged his holy Word though they notoriously swerved from it And 't is as certain that the generality of the Jewish Church did often fall into Idolatry yet they continued still a Church to our Saviours days as I shewed before so that for my part I dare not presume to draw the exact Circular line of a Church over which the Transgression makes it cease to be a saving Church but as I said above some cases are clear General Infidelity as to renounce God and his Christ doubtless makes it cease to be a Church but Idolatry though it be as general as in Elijah's days when he conceived himself only free from Baal-worship doubtless doth make it not cease to be a Church For we do not find that the Priests and Levites were consecrated a new after their defection to Idolatry And therefore with Dr. Thorndick's good lieve though we descend from a Church too too much given to Idolatry yet our Bishops consecrated by them need no more a new Consecration than those Jewish Priests who were most certainly polluted with Idolatry but relinquishing their Idolatry and with penitential hearts sacrificing to the true God were reconciled again to God and in mercy accepted by the Divine Goodness Who then can doubt that those Bishops of this Nation who with penitent hearts renounc'd the Romish Idolatry and so zealously embrac'd the truth of the Gospel and God's sincere Worship in Spirit and in Truth as to die in defence of it I say who can doubt but through the infinite goodness of the same merciful God our Reformed Bishops were likewise accepted by him and thenceforth acknowledged true and faithful Shepherds of his Church Wherefore I
point controverted between us Indeed it were strange if in so many points in difference they should not have some colour at least in Scripture for one or two Let us see what Scripture they have for their Transubstantiation A very clear one Our Saviour taking Bread in his hand said This is my Body Sure we believe our Saviour could change Bread into his Body why then do not we believe that he did change it I pray you give me lieve to make the like Argument to you Our Saviour as positively said I am the bread which came down from heaven Sure you believe our Saviour could change his Body into Bread why then do not you believe he did so Are we not upon equal Terms If then you deny the latter to me why may not I deny the former to you You see how unconscionably they accuse us as a sensual and faithless Generation that will not believe any thing beyond our Senses do not we believe the Trinity our Saviour's Incarnation the Resurrection and much more far above all Sense and Reason also and should as readily believe this were there any just ground for it in Scripture But the Papists come upon us again and urge doth not our Saviour say Joh. 6. My flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed and much more in that Chapter I must confess the words in this Chapter are far more pressing upon us than those in Matthew This is my body c. for'tis apparent the words in John made many take them in a literal sence as if Christ would give his very Flesh and Blood to be eaten and drunk whereat many of his Disciples were much offended and went from him but when at supper he said This is my body and gave it his Disciples to eat no man was offended at it or made any scruple to eat what he gave which no doubt some one at least would have done had they apprehended it to be his very Flem. Thomas who so hardly believed his Resurrection often declared unto him before hand and attested to him by all the rest after and the thing it self so much more easie for him to believe that the Soul should enter the same Body but two whole days after death when he had seen Lazarus raised after four dayes doubtless this slow believing Thomas would have somewhat boggled at believing the bread converted into Christ's Flesh and to eat it yet we do not find he or any other was startled at it but swallowed it down as readily as the former meat for our Saviour had before informed them that the words he spake were spirit and life therefore they ought not to be offended at them all which makes me confidently believe they did not believe it to be Christ's very Flesh but took the words as figuratively spoken as you and all others do those words I am the bread c. And I do as confidently believe that had they believed wrong our Saviour would have rectified their belief and would have fully instructed them But now I beseech you consider those words in Joh. which are so much more pressing for a literal sence of Christs very flesh given if those by the Papist Doctors are taken in a figurative sence and will not be endured by them in a literal sence have you not much more reason to take those in Matthew in a figurative sence The Papist Doctors dare not take the Words of St. John literally because they so clearly condemn the taking away the Cup from the Laity and denying them the Blood of Christ which our Saviour there so absolutely requires to be drunk by every one that will enter into Life Now consider into what a strait the Papist Doctors have brought themselves into if they take the words literally their taking away the Cup is declared damnable to the Laity if they take them figuratively their Transubstantiation is condemned as a grand Imposture But blessed be God we are free from both and fully confirmed in the figurative sence by St. Paul 1 Cor. 11. 23. Where he tells the Corinthians that he delivered to them what he received of the Lord who said This Cup is the New Testament in my blood which words differ much from those spoken by our Saviour and are as different in the sence also if taken literally for they denote a change of the Cup into Christ's Blood and therefore of necessity must and are taken by all figuratively and then they signifie the same with our Saviour's words and I hope the Papists will not accuse St. Paul to have told the Corinthians a false story and delivered that unto them which he never received of Christ. Sure you will rather stand up for St. Paul and accuse their Transubstantiation of falsity I could dilate on this Subject much more but I love brevity as well as you and when you desire more there is enough to be seen in Bishop Morton e. The Conclusion is made by the Papist Doctors that there being no Transubstantiation they are as great Idolaters in adoring the consecrated Hoste as any Heathens ever were God of his infinite mercy preserve you from having any Communion with them I shall now end this business as I began with Dr. Thorndick's Judgement thereon He in his Sixteenth Chapter speaking of the Papists praying to Saints saith there was no such thing in use till a good while after Constantine the Emperour who died Anno Dom. 350. so that by this Computation it must be about 400 years And can any one in reason think it fit to venture on so dangerous a practice in Religion unknown to the Church 400 years when Faith was purest Devotion most fervent Sanctity most eminent and when all helps to Salvation were most eagerly pursued yet no praying to Saints practised which is now come to that height as Dr. Thorndick himself there calls it A precipice of horrible danger sor saith he they ask the same things of the Saints and especially of the Blessed Virgin in the same terms in which they are desired of God even in the holy Scripture And this which the Doctor affirms is most evident in their printed Books of Prayer wherein though they sometimes mention the Saints Intercession and this we do to Christ also perfect God yet other times they pray to the Saints and Blessed Virgin directly for the things Thus you see they make no distinction between God Christ Blessed Virgin and Saints in their form of Prayer or things prayed for And is not this Idolatry far greater than to sacrifice to them Bulls and Rams to give them the divinest part of God's Worship Is not this to deifie them in the highest degree Is not this to worship false Gods They make them Gods as much as ever the Heathens made their Heroes Gods for the Heathens believed their Heroes to be mortal Men they knew them living they saw them dying but for their great Virtues believed their Souls were carried up into heaven and
see most clearly set down by St. Austin in his Eighth and Tenth Books de Civ Dei where he particularly enumerates the parts of Divine Worship as Sacrifice Invocation Dedication of Churches and Altars Oblations and Vows which the Scripture appropriates to God all which the Greeks saith he comprise in one word viz. Latreia but the Latins have not any one word of full signification to express it and then St. Austin flatly denies that the Christians do give Latreia that is any part of this Divine Worship to the Saints and there challenges the Heathens to prove the contrary if they can Whereas 't is as evident as the Sun at noon-day that the Papists do give not one but all those parts of Divine Worship called in general Latreia unto their Saints unless it be the sacrificing of Beasts this they reserve to God alone and truly he is much beholding to them for it they will give unto him the flesh of Bulls Rams Goats but unto the Saints their own their Hearts and Lips the Saints shall have their living holy and acceptable Sacrifice the very Soul of the Sacrifice and God shall have the dead Body even stinking in his divine nostrils which his Soul loaths and abhorrs as he hath often declared in his holy Word It was the devout prayer of the heart that sanctified and made acceptable the sacrifice of the Beasts without which they were an abomination unto God and are now in the pure times of the Gospel wholly laid aside and the Calves of our Lips and of our Hearts and Souls is the sacrifice of Christians and the principal part of Divine Worship Now I ask a Papist was it lawful for the Jews to sacrifice Beasts to Angels or deceased Patriarchs the very chiefest of them Noah Abraham Moses had not this been Idolatry in them who can deny it and why had this been Idolatry Because Sacrifice is a Divine Worship and to give Divine Worship to any Creature is Idolatry Is it not much more Idolatry to give unto Michael Gabriel Abraham Moses the purer the holier the diviner part of God's Service the Worship of Prayer is not this greater Idolatry can any man of sence deny it and yet this more holy part more divine Sacrifice the Papists give unto their Saints and in sum there is not any one thing that true Christians do or can do to God but the Papists do the very same to Saints and transcendently to the Blessed Virgin to whom the generality of the Papists pay ten times as much devotion as to God and are so far from being reproved for it as they are encouraged to it by their greatest Doctors I cannot but wonder at the grossand ridiculous mistake or rather abuse in wresting of St. Austin's word Latreia which he puts as a general word comprising all parts of Divine Worship but the Papists turn it quite to another sence and will understand thereby the Belief wherewith they worship which is not at all to St. Austin's purpose for there he mentions not any thing of Belief but Matter of Fact viz. what Worship is and ought to be given to God only as invocation by Prayer Dedication of Churches Altars Oblations Vows all which in St. Austin's sence is Latreia and all this the Papists give to the Blessed Virgin and Saints But say the Papists they do not give this with Latreia that is they do not believe them Gods when they worship them which they cannot do as I shewed before And thus they give them Latreia but not with Latreia Divine Worship but not with Divine Worship a most ridiculous juggling foppery Perchance a Similitude may make this matter plainer thus The King makes a Law that it shall be Treason punishable with death to give Kingly honours to a subject and then declares what he means by Kingly honours as to set a Crown on his head to call him Majesty to erect for him a Chair of State to serve him on the Knee c. all which the King comprizes in one word Royalty and as I said makes it treason to give Royalty to any Subject Now the Earl of Kent to whom the people of that Country are much devoted comes thither to a Gentlemans House who the more to magnifie this great Earl sets a Crown on his head calls him Majesty erects him a Chair of State serves him on the knee c. my Gentleman is called in question accused of Treason for giving Royalty to the Earl the Gentleman confesses all the Fact but pleads that he did not believe the Earl to be King nor did intend to set him up as King but only to give him all the honour he could 't is true he gave him Royalty in every part but not with Royalty the King though full of indignation for such a bold presumption and total breach of his Law burst out into laughter at the Gentleman 's ridiculous Plea and answers the Gentleman Well you gave your honured Earl all the honour due to me you gave him Royalty but not with Royalty so you shall die the death of a Traytor but not as a Traytor I suppose we shall at the day of Judgment hear the Papists subtil Doctors make this rare plea and excuse for their Idolatry and distinguish the point 't is true they gave the Saints Latreia but not with Latreia and I fear we shall hear their heavy doom for it Alas poor wretches the plain Text of Scripture must then take place the subtil Distinctions of Aquinas and Scotus will then be ridiculous and eternally deplorable folly 1 Cor. 1. 20. Where is the wise where is the scribe where is the disputer of this world hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world God of his infinite mercy open their eyes to see and bewail this their dangerous folly The plain and clear Truth is this They worship the Saints and chiefly the Blessed Virgin just as God or rather more than God it will be no excuse to say they do not believe her to be the very God nor call her God for as I shewed before 't is not the belief nor the calling her God makes it Idolatry but the giving her the Worship due to God And for the fuller convicton of the Papists I pray observe that though they do not call her in that very express word God yet they give her words and titles fully declaring her a Goddess as much or more than the Heathens did their Goddesses all which I cannot doubt but she fully detests her Humility being as great as her Dignity and indeed raised her to it as she expresses in her Magnificat That God regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden surely then she cannot but abhorr that they should call her Queen of Heaven and make Oblations to her so expresly declared Idolatry in Scripture Jer. 7. 18. They make their supplications and call upon her in time of trouble and even in the point of death which God expresly requires to