Occasion that if that had been the only design of that Commandement it is very strange that God should note the Worshipping of the Heathen Gods with no other penalty than that which his Jealousie would inflict For to have any other Gods besides him is without all question spiritual Whoredom and had been threatned with Divorce if the Prohibition of so great a Crime had needed the of Sanction of any express Threatning But when he threatens the Worship of Images with the Effects of his Jealousie it seems plain that he means such Image-Worship as is consistent with acknowledging him to be our Only God And yet this is the least of all those Reasons by which it appears to me that he forbids in this Commandment the Worship of all Images whatsoever I deny not therefore but a man may kneel may kiss may incense may prostrate himself and pray before an Image and all this while ascribe no Divinity to it nor take it to be his God So likewise he may Pray and make Vows and offer Thanks and Prayses to the Saints and to the B. Virgin and not take them neither for his Gods But because God is the peerless Majesty of Heaven and Earth he will be served with a peerless Worship he will therefore have no such things as these done in Religion nor Creatures to have Respect shewn them that look so like to the Worship which he requires himself Why do I say so like That which they give to the B.V. and to the Saints is almost the very same But if we do such things as these it will not serve our turn to plead That we still keep the inward Adoration of Spirit and Truth intirely for him though we thus honor his Creatures with Religious Rites and Services any more than it would excuse a Woman that had given all the Favors and Liberty to another Man that could provoke her Husband's Jealousie to say though she could say it with Truth that she remembred all the while who was her Husband and whatever Liberties besides she used that she had still kept his Bed undefiled This Consideration I could not forbear to use and that in Compassion to those whose Prejudices will not let them feel the Sense of those Reasonings by which we prove the Roman Church to be guilty of downright Idolatry For if the fear of God's Jealousie would keep them from giving those Honors to the Saints which look so like Divine Honours if they are not so we should gain our end upon them though not by the force of the best arguing the Case will bear And this is our End That God may not be any more dishonour'd and their Salvation hindred by the unchristian Doctrines and Practices of this sort I have therefore now proceeded upon this Supposition that they are not guilty of perfect Idolatry in tâ—ose things which we complain of and yet shewn what urgent Cause there is upon another Account for a Reformation of them But I conclude this with professing That I have supposed them not guilty of that fearful Crime only to make way for another Argument since all Arguments are to be used in so important a Matter that have a Foundation of Truth but not in distrust of those Arguments which prove them guilty of it §. 7. The second thing I propounded was to shew the beginnings of this strange Worship amongst Christians which they offer in the Church of Rome to the B. Virgin and to the Saints For I must not forget that M. de Meaux pretends that his Church in these things teaches as the Primitive Church taught and that she does what she teaches with all Antiquity But what if nothing of all this was either Taught or done in the Church for 360 years after Christ M. de M. sayes that those of the Pretended Reformation obliged by the strength of Truth begin to acknowledge that the custom of Praying to Saints and honoring their Reliques was Established even in the fourth Age of the Church This he takes all occasions to insinuate and with these colours he serves himself to represent the Reformation as odiously as he can devise Thus he tells us in his Pastoral Letter But above all what horror are they worthy of Past l. p. 29. who cast the Accusation of Idolatry upon the whole Church and also on the Church of the first Ages Where he takes it for granted that the Honour and Innocence of the first Ages must stand or fall with the Cause of the Roman Church and so takes occasion to accuse us of a great and fearful Crime viz. That we cast the accusation of Idolatry upon the whole Church even the Church of the first Ages He had observed but just before that those who bear false and scandalous Witness against an Innocent Person are Condemned to the same punishment which the Crime of which they bear Witness did deserve had it been found true And therefore we deserve before men the Horror which is due to Idolatry and shall receive the just punishment thereof in the sight of God If this Rule be true and we must incur the Penalties of Idolatry if we falsly accuse others of it M. de Meaux ought to reflect upon himself who having accused us of falsly accusing the First Ages in this matter supports his Accusation by taking these two things for granted First that we acknowledge the Illustrious Fourth Age to have requested the Prayers of Martyrs and honored Reliques Ibid. as the pretended Catholicks have done since Secondly that the Fourth Age being granted them the first Three must be theirs in course If M. de Meaux be safe upon these Grounds we have no great cause to apprehend the Horrors and Punishments of false Accusation And if this be all he hath to say 't is but a very slender ground for an Appeal to the Primitive Church and to all Antiquity For neither have the. Reformed acknowledged heretofore Id. p. 8. nor do they now begin to acknowledge that the Customs of the Roman Church in these points were established in the Fourth Age of the Church Nor if they did acknowledge it would this Acacknowledgment give away the Primitive Church and all Antiquity in favour of Praying to Saints and worshipping of Images and Reliques unless the first three Ages were less Antient and Primitive than those that followed That which we acknowledge is not that Saint-Worship was Established in the Fourth Age but this that towards the latter end of the Fourth Age some unhappy occasions were given for the Establishing of that Worship in after Ages which we could wish had never been given and which the Great Men of those Dayes we have reason to believe would have prevented if they had been Prophets as well as holy Men and foreseen the Mischiess into which they were ripened by the Superstition of after-times I shall therefore demonstrate that 't is a vain thing for the pretended Catholicks to presume that they have the Authority of the
is possible for God to reveal to my Friend in the East-Indies what I say here in England But am I sure that if I say to him an Ora pro nobis at this distance it reaches him forthwith It were no difficult matter if it were needful to find them trouble enough to clear these very Conjectures from Absurdity but as long as they are only Conjectures they can be no Foundation of a certain Perswasion Whereas therefore M. de Meaux says It is manifest that to say a Creature may have the knowledge of these Prayers by a Light communicated to him by God is not so elevate a Creature above his Condition I say it is as manifest that this is no ground of Certainty that the Saints hear our Prayers at all and if this be all they have to say and yet will pretend to pray to them with Faith there is but one ground left for that Faith viz. That the Saints are every where present and are therefore elevated above the Condition of Creatures Which though some of themselves do not believe yet their Assurance to be heard being altogether unreasonable without that belief their Prayers do give the Omni-presence of God to Creatures which is indeed the great reason why their Addresses to the Saints are properly Prayers This therefore I lay down and let them remove it if they can that to invocate any Creature who is out of the compass of civil Conversation i.e. with whom I cannot converse as we do with one another by speaking within the known distances of Hearing or by Writing or Messages or the like is in it self a vain and foolish thing because he is out of distance But if I pretend that it is profitable to invoke the Saints and this upon Assurance that they hear me tho I can neither tell which way in particular nor can shew in general that they do certainly hear me some way that does not infer their Omni-presence there is no remedy but my Invocation of them must by consequence confess that they are Omnipresent Let therefore those of our Communion say that by calling upon God they do acknowledge his Omni-presence as well as his other Infinite Perfections and that they are such Acknowledgments which make their Invocation of God Râ—ligious Invocation or that which is Prayer in the account of Religion And therefore that they dare not call upon the Saints departed because they being without the compass of civil Conversation or of such means of Communication as we have with one another in this World we cannot be reasonably assured that they hear us unless we will suppose them to be omni-present which as we do not believe so we dare not do any thing that looks as if we did believe it Thus have I shewn what in our Judgment makes the difference between asking fit things of our Brethren upon Earth and asking the same things of our Brethren in Heaven why one is not Prayer and the other is viz. Because the Living are within our compass and the Dead are out of it But whatever it is that makes the difference since the honest Requests we make to one another in this World are not Prayer and the Requests we make to the Saints in Heaven are Prayer it does not follow that we may request the same things of These as we may of Those For if the Argument be put into proper Expressions nothing can be more apparently inconsequent for then it would run thus Because I make my Requests known to those to whom I do not offer the Religious Worship of Prayer in so doing therefore I may represent my Desires to those too whom I cannot call upon but my desires become the Worship of Prayer or Religious Invocation And from hence it appears that tho' this Act of Religious Worship be given by those of the R. Church to the the meanest Saint yet after the most plausible Defence they make of their practice in so doing it is not to be given to the most excellent Creature and therefore not to the B. Virgin her self And by this we may judge what a Cause they have to maintain who call upon the Saints and especially upon the B. Virgin in strains so unsuitable to the condition of Creatures as they are whom they invoke when because they are but Creatures they ought not to invoke them at all since they are out of that compass of Conversation in which only we could speak to them as to Creatures with Faith that they hear us §. 4. To come to the next particular when they kneel to the Images of the B. Virgin and the Saints and prostrate and humble themselves and Pray before them we are given to understand there is no harm in all this bethey attribute no other vertue to the Images p. 9. but that of exciting the remembrances of those they represent and their intention is not so much to honor the Image p. 10. as to honor the Apostle or the Martyr in the presence of the Image As if the Image were present to see and observe the Honour that is done the Apostle or Martyr For it is no great honor that any body gets by being honored in the presence of mere Wood or Stone that can neither see nor hear This was an odd expression of M. de Meaux this of honoring the Martyr in the presence of the Image no way sutable to the design of his Exposition but fitted only to the Superstition of such People who have been made to believe by the weeping and smiling of Images and by the rowling of their Eyes and by the shaking of their Heads and Bodies c. that they are a kind of animated things But to let this pass what though M. de Meaux attributes no other virtues to Images but that of exciting Remembrance What tho he takes a very commendable Care in his Diocess to make the People stop there Does he not know by experience do not all wise Men know it and many honest Men in the Communion of that Church confess it that in those Images which the people are taught to present themselves before with all the Ceremonies of Respect and Veneration there is another fatal Virtue and that is to excite devotion toward themselves even to the demanding of Favours from them and putting Trust in them Is it not as notorious that the wretched People are guilty of worshipping the Images of the Saints no otherwise than they do the Saints themselves as that they Worship the Saints no otherwise then they Worship God himself â—ain in Civit. D. Lib. 8. c. 27. as Ludov. Vives complained If it be said that these Abuses may be provided against and Images may be still Honor'd for Honor is the Word though Religious worship is the Thing I would know why men should make Provisions in this case as if they were wiser than God who to prevent these mischiefs has forbidden Image-worship altogether If there were any such Advantages to
this crafty Design is no way reconcileable to that Spirit of Integrity which the Gospel frames us to if we are True Christians and of which they if any were undeniable Examples One would think therefore that if the Heathens knew no such Doctrines and Practices amongst the Christians that the Christians had none such to be known And in the Opinion of Salmeron himself had those known any such thing these had not failed to have heard of it Why then did they not charge the Christians with Worshipping the B. Virgin when nothing would have been more pertinent and apposite I will give one Instance of this Question so clear and full that it shall render all others needless There was nothing that Celsus insisted upon against the Christians Worshipping Jesus Christ with more Spite and Triumph then that Jesus was as he called him a most vile Person Taken Beaten and Cruceâ—ied Orig. contra cels lib. 2.3 It was for this he scorned the Christians that they should count him the Son of God and Worship him now dead who lived and died ignominiously It must be uneasie to a Christian Ibid. lib. 7.8 to write or to read his Blasphemies upon this Occasion But there is one place that I must not forbear and that is Where the foresaid Wretch brings in a Jew and with the Jew does himself upbraid Jesus That he was Born in a little Town of Judaea and that of a wandring Woman miserably poor that span for her living who was also for Adultery thrown out of doors Orig. lib. 1. Cont. Cel. by the Carpenter her Husband and being thus driven away by him and wandring up and down in a base fashion brought forth Jesus in a Corner Thus did that accursed Villain blaspheme the Blessed Virgin in despite to Jesus her most Holy Son I say in despite to him because he was worshipped by the Christians By bringing forth the Execrable Stories of the Jews concerning the Mother the Impious Infidel designed to make the Church of God ashamed of Worshipping her Son whom he sought to disparage this way as well as by objecting the Poverty of his Life and the Ignominy of his Death But suppose I beseech you that the Church in those days had honored the Mother of Jesus little less than Jesus himself that she had been called the Queen of Heaven that the Story of her Assumption had been then invented that she had been Worstipped as the Lady of the World and served with Prayers and Vows and Incense and with all or with any of those Religious Rites that she is now served with would that spiteful Wretch have failed to reproach the enemies of his Gods with so plain a matter of Reproach Did he think they had reason to be ashamed of making so helpless and so unfortunate a man as the Pagans took Jesus to be Ibid. Lib. 8. the object of a most excellent Worship and would he not have thought it a greater shame if they had given a superexcellent worship to so helpless and so scandalous a woman as the false Miscreant reckoned the Mother to be Did they insult over the Christians for making a God of the Son of such a Mother What would they have said if the Church had given then the least occasion to suspect that it had made a Goddess of the Mother her self But of this not one word is to be met with in all the Reproaches of the Infidal no nor of Trypho or Coecilius or any of the most bitter enemies of the Christian names for the three first Ages where it lay as fair to be taken up as Argument and Occasion could make it What Account then is to be given of this Omission It was no Omission of theirs at all The Church had not yet given them this Handle against it self No such things as these were known amongst Christians and therefore their Enemies did not lay them to their Charge Their Enemies I say who falsly accused them as to other matters upon the most slight and frivolous Occasions They accused them of Worshipping an Asse's Head of killing a Child at their Solemn Assemblies and of Adultery and Incest as you may see in Minutius Felix and elsewhere and all this upon the most ridiculous Grounds imaginable But it seems the Christians paid Religious Worship to the Virgin and to dead Men and Women and their watchful Enemies were content to say never a word of it Alas these wise Men did not know that the Christians derided them for such things as these perhaps they were always deaf when it was told them that the Christians did the same things themselves or they had quite forgotten it when it was most proper to remember it or were so silly as not to discern the Advantage they were to make of it or so imprudent as to accuse them of other things which could be easily disproved rather than to accuse them of those things which could not be denied The Children of this World were now grown Fools in their Generation He that can believe these things let him believe them I shall add this only Cyril contra Julian l. 6. See Mr. Mede's Apostacy of the later times that when the least Occasions were once given to suspect that the Martyrs were worshipped by the Church the Heathens immediately laid hold on the Pretence especially Julian and Eunapius who urged the Accusation with all the stings of Malice as their Predecessors in this Cause against Christ would certainly have done had there been the least Colour for it But to return to the Virgin Mary We have seen that in these latter Ages the Doctrine of her Worship is grown to be no mean part of the Body of Divinity with the Doctors of the Roman Church There is no end of writing Books in her Honor and to excite and direct Devotion to her A Sermon cannot be preached but she must be addressed to with an Ave Mary Nor a large Volume Written but 't is odds that it is concluded with Praise to God and to the Virgin Mother Mary One would therefore expect to find all things full of Veneration and Address to the B. Virgin in the Writings of the Primitive Fathers that is to meet with it at every turn in their Expositions of the Faith in their Exhortations to Devotion and Piety and in all their Homilies to the people But if you look for any such thing I will be bold to say you will lose your labour unless it were some Satisfaction to find that the World is very much altered from what it was and the State of Religion not a little changed But the worst is that what these Fathers say of her is but very little in Comparison and that not of set purpose but incidentally and occasionally as they were led to it by other things I know not how the Fathers can be excused but that the Scriptures speak as sparingly of her as they It were something however if their occasional