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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	church_n	divine_a	scripture_n	3,472	5	5.9670	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35023	A letter written to a friend concerning Popish idolatrie	Croft, Herbert, 1603-1691.	1674 (1674)	Wing C6968; ESTC R3785	21,890	35

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

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