respected even till now as the Doctors of Truth But hold a little if great Names will do the business let us see what we can do in this kind Can you endure my Brethren those who have forsaken the Ireneus's the Justin-Martyrs the Clemens's of Alexandria the Tertullians the Origens the Cyprians the Athanasius's whom all Christians do pretend even now to respect as Doctors of Truth Those my Brethren that were more Ancient than the Ambroses c. and most of whom laid down their lives in a Glorious Martyrdom which none of the other did It is true Brethren p. 29. that some part of the Prophecies was fulfilled when the Empire took the Church into its protection but we do not find it was foretold also that the Christians of that Age would be wiser or better than their Forefathers p. ◠Does not Monsieur de Meaux tell us that Antichrist must come according to the Predictions of the Apostles But when that happens the times are not to be much the better for it It was the admirable goodness of God to Crown the Church at last with Peace and Glory But do not think the Authority of that Age is to be regarded the more because it was Illustrious for the Wealth and Splendor of this World least by the same reason you should undervalue the Authority of the more Ancient Ages which were Illustrious for nothing but Truth and Godliness and Martyrdom which if you should do my Brethren might we not well cry out Oh prodigy unheard of amongst Christians that we should begin to think it a better mark of a pure Church to have it in its power to persecute others than to endure persecution her self after the example of Christ and his Apostles It is an easie matter to requite a Declamation But would not the Bishop of Meaux say to this that the Ireneus's c. do not condemn what is now practised in the Church of Rome So do we say that we are far from charging the Ambroses c. with Idolatry and that the Doctrines and Practises of that Age with respect to the points that we are upon are so vastly different from what we now see in the Church of Rome that if the Church of Rome be Idolatrous it does by no means follow that the Fourth Age was so So that we must come to disputing at last whether we will or not if we talk of these questions to any purpose I have shewn the first steps that were made towards the Invocation of Saints which I confess is an Innovation maintained by the Church of Rome that of all the rest bids the fairest for Antiquity Because there was a certain Address to Martyrs used by many Christians and commended by some of the Fathers towards the latter end of the Fourth Age which looks something like it till you come near to examine the matter throughly But then you may discern so considerable a difference that 't is a vain thing to pretend that the Invocation of Saints as now practised in the Church of Rome was as Ancient as the Conclusion of the Fourth Age. All that we need to grant is this That those beginnings are so Ancient which first did give occasion to it and which with the help of Ignorance and Superstition did at length bring it into the Church § 10. Hitherto the Honour done to the Martyrs was that of Founding Churches upon their Reliques and frequenting them both for the publick Service of God and for private Devotions in which the Martyrs themselves were sometimes called upon as if they were present at their Memories But this was done before their Images came to be set up in the Church so much as for Ornament and long before they were thought of for Worship We have already noted the Act of Epiphanius in tearing the Picture of Christ or some other Saint for he knew not well what it was which he found upon a Veil An act of Indignation so much the more remarkable because the Church where it was done was in the Diocess of John Bishop of Hierusalem Hieron Tom. 2. Ep. 60. v. fin to whom therefore Epiphanius thought fit to give an account of it in that Epistle which is to be seen in St. Hierom's Works And the reason he gives for what he did is as remarkable as the Action was When I saw this in a Church of Christ that the Picture of a man should be hanged up there against the Authority of the Scriptures I tare it c. And again I intreat thee to command the Presbyters of that place to provide for the future that such Veils being contrary to what our Religion allows may not be hanged up in the Church of Christ. But as for the Images of Martyrs and Saints why should I go about to prove that they were not yet brought into Churches when the pretended Catholicks are fain to give reasons why they were hardly to be met with amongst Christians even out of Churches Petavius excuseth the matter thus The Images of Christ and the Saints were not used lest they should be taken by the rude and unskilful people for Idols to which they shad been accustomed And afterward Petav. Dogm Theol. Tom. 4. part 2. c. 13. p. 582 583. Images are not evil of themselves nor forbidden by any Law of God nevertheless that no shadow of Superstition and Idolatry might give offence to the tender and as I may say the unsetled minds of Christians and that the Gentiles might not object to those of our Religion who abhorred Idols and disswaded men from them that themselves also had certain Images of their own is likely they were but sparingly used for about the first Four Ages all which time the abominable Worship of Devils in Idols together with a most cruel vexation of the Christian name went on At length the Fifth Age being come after that the Church had gained her freedom and began boldly to stretch forth her arms Images began to appear in most places and were shewn in Temples and Oratories whereas hitherto though they had been in some use yet they were not to be seen so promiscuously and frequently In good time But if such a man as Petavius could have shewn any use of Images all this while that any Art could draw to his purpose he had not served the Cause with this miserable account of the late setting up of Images With the like to which Salmeron satisfied himself as to the silence of the Scriptures about the Worship of Saints as we have already seen Now to make this appear likely he insists upon it that the Ancients disputed against the Temples and Altars of the Heathens though when peace and liberty was given to the Church the Christians had magnificent Churches and Altars of their own But nothing can be more vain for from the first the Church had its Altars or holy Tables and its holy Places too such as the times would permit And therefore this Instance doth
Again Thou having the power of a Mother with God dost beyond measure gain Pardon for them who sin beyond measure For it cannot be that thou shouldst not be heard because to all purposes and in all things and through all things God obeys thee as his true and immaculate Mother This was pretty well for the eighth Age as likewise was that of Damascene who calls the B. Virgin †Joh. Damasc lib. 4. c. 15. The Lady and Go verness of all Creatures No wonder therefore that Cardinal Peter Damian coming long after these telleth her that she comes before the Altar of Reconciliation not asking only but commanding as a Lady not as a Servant I know not whether he was the Author of those glorious Titles which have since furnished some of the Hymns that we meet with in the Offices of the Blessed Virgin * Hom. 46 de Nativ B Mar. 1. Tom. 2 p. 106. The Queen of the World The Window of Heaven The Gate of Paradise The Tabernacle of God The Star of the Sea The Heavenly Ladder by which the Heavenly King came down to us below and by which man who grovelled upon the ground ascends in exaltation to Heaven But Anselm that lived in the same Age with him speaks more fully ‖ Anselm Cant. de Excell Virgin c. 11. As God is the Father and God of all things by his power creating all things so Blessed Mary the Mother of God restoring all things by her Merits is the Mother and Lady of the Vniverse Which agrees very well with that reason he had given before why her Son went to Heaven before her †Ibid. c. 7. Perhaps O Lord lest thy Court in Heaven should stand in doubt whom it should rather go out to meet See Answer to Jesuits Chall from p. 478. to p. 495. thee their Lord coming to take possession of thy Kingdom or her their Lady ascending to that Kingdom also which belonged to her by a Mothers right To this nothing could be added in so little a time beyond Bonaventure's Psalter who taking the Psalms of David put in Lady instead of Lord in this manner O come let us sing unto our Lady c. Let every thing that hath breath praise our Lady But not content with this he framed the * Psalt Bonav p. 111 112 Paris Athanasian Creed to her Service too beginning thus Whosoever will be saved before all things it is necessary that he should hold a firm Faith concerning the Virgin Mary which Faith except a man keep whole and undefiled without doubt he shall perish everlastingly And now whosoever shall consider the Litanies of the Blessed Virgin and her Rosaries and the Prayers and Hymns of her Saturday's Office and her Psalters and the vast number of Books of Devotion to her and the Worship that is accordingly given to her in pretended Catholick Countries whosoever shall consider what they say to her in those Prayers and Hymns c. which the Speculum Beatoe Virginis just now published has put together may perhaps find there are Causes of Horror which Monsieur de Meaux is not so much concerned at as he ought to be He may justly fear that if the Reformation did not give some little check neither would these excesses stop here though in many places nothing now remains to be done but without any farther reservedness to erect Altars proper to the Blessed Virgin in every Church as the †Trigautii Exp. ad Sinas lib. 5. c. 15.20 Jesuites began to do in China O Blessed God look down in thy mercy upon the miserable estate of Christianity in so many parts of the Christian World When the Blessed Virgin foretold that all Generations should call her Blessed did she mean that all Generations would Worship her would Worship her Images and Pictures would make her a Mediatrix between God and man would ascribe to her the power not of prevailing with Jesus only for any thing but of commanding him too would offer Jesus himself a Sacrifice in her Honour should burn Incense to her would use Rosaries Hours and Psalters for her especial Invocation and Service would institute and maintain Fraternities for that Service would build Temples and Chappels to her and Altars and by most solemn Invocation every-where and by proper Rites of Religious Worship and by letting Devotion run out to her more than to our Lord Jesus himself to agnize her to be the Lady of Heaven and Earth the Queen of the World No she did not mean thus in saying that all Generations should call her Blessed For thus all Generations have not served her Nothing of all this was done to her for several Generations after Christ nor any thing of it in comparison till the dregs of Time till the decay of Learning and Piety made way for gross Superstition The first beginnings of these Corruptions were more general but the Improvements of them were chiefly owing to the See of Rome which as it grew in power and greatness so it protected those Abuses more effectually A Character very ill-beseeming a Church that pretends to be the Pillar and Ground of Truth The Wit of Man could not devise any thing more serviceable to Errour to make it spread in the World and to fix it than that a powerful See grasping at Supremacy and pretending to Infallibility should take it under her wing This See is the Source of all those Oppositions which they have met with that demanded a Reformation it is this See alone which hath obstructed a general Reformation when Christendom was otherwise well disposed towards it Therefore when Reformation by common consent was made Impossible by the See of Rome what remained but that the National Churches should reform themselves Our Reformation was a return to Primitive Antiquity and that it may prove a leading example let us pray without ceasing That God would bring into the way of Truth all such as have erred and are deceived THE END Faults to be Corrected PAge 81 seventh line from the bottom for Consciences read Concessions P. 82 l. 3. for Reconciled r. Recommended P. 80 l. 6. for them read then P. 88 l. 7. for safely r. falsly P. 92 l. 3. for Prayers r. Praises A Catalogue of some Discourses Sold by T. Basset at the George in Fleetstreet 1. A Perswasive to an Ingenuous Tryal of Opinons in Religion 2. The Difference of the Case between the Separation of the Protestants from the Church of Rome and the Separation of Dissenters from the Church of England 3. A Discourse about the Charge of Novelty upon the Reformed Church of England made by the Papists asking us the Question Where was our Religion before Luther 4. The Protestant Resolution of Faith being an Answer to Three Questions I. How far we must depend on the Authority of the Church for the true Sence of Scripture II. Whether a visible Succession from Christ to this day makes a Church which has this visible Succession an Infallible Interpreter of Scripture and whether no Church which has not this visible Succession can teach the true Sence of Scripture III. Whether the Church of England can make out such a visible Succession 5. A Discourse concerning a Guide in matters of Faith with Respect especially to the Romish pretence of the Necessity of such a one as is Infallible 6. A Discourse about Tradition shewing what is meant by it and what Tradition is to be Recieved and what Tradition is to be Rejected 7. A Discourse concerning the Unity of the Catholick Church maintained in the Church of England 8. A Discourse concerning the Necessity of Reformation with respect to the Errours and Corruptions of the Church of Rome In two Parts 9. A Discourse concerning the Object of Religious Worship or a Scripture-Proof of the Unlawfulness of giving any Religious Worship to any other Being besides the one Supreme God 10. A Discourse against Transubstantiation 11. A Discourse concerning the Adoration of the Host as it is Taught and Practised in the Church of Rome Wherein an Answer is given to T. G. on that Subject and to Monsieur Bocleau's late Book de Adoratione Eucharistioe Paris 1685. 12. A Discourse concerning Invocation of Saints 13. A Discourse concerning the Devotions of the Church of Rome 14. A Discourse concerning the Celebration of Divine Service in an Unknown Tongue 15. A Discourse concerning Auricular Confession as it is Prescribed by the Council of Trent and Practised in the Church of Rome With a Postscript on occasion of a Book lately printed in France called Historia Confessionis Auricularis 16. A Discourse concerning the Worship of the Blessed Virgin and the Saints with an Account of the Beginnings and Rise of it amongst Christians In Answer to Monsieur de Meaux's Appeal to the Fourth Age in his Exposition and his Pastoral Letter A Collection of Cases and other Discourses lately written to recover Dissenters to the Communion of the Church of England by some Divines of the City of London In two Volumes in Quarto
be made of it in comparison to which the Danger of it were nothing at all how comes it to be so severely Prohibited But when we consider for whose sake chiefly they pretend the Profitableness of Image-worship we see how true it is that the Wisdom of Man is but Foolishness when it would mend the provisions of God For Images are by all means to be retain'd and honor'd because they are the Books and Remembrances of the Common People and Helps to their Piety and Devotions who therefore cannot be without them Trid. sess 25. De. Invoc S. But M. de Meaux knows that these are most apt to be led into the worst Superstitions by Images and that it is one of the hardest things in the World to prevent it M. de Meaux tells us their Intention is not so much to honor the Image as the Apostle or Martyr He will say too that 't is the Intention of the Church that none of the People should intend more then this comes to But let him tell me how or where the Church has exprest her self with the least degree of that Zeal which the redressing of such horrible abuses in this matter as are every where known does still require The Superstition of the vulgar in their Communion is notorious and which is still worse the Doctrines leading to the most Superstitious Opinions and Practices in this kind were and are notorious for instance That the same worship is due to the Image which is due to the Prototype And are not these things uncensured by the Church of Rome to this day If indeed we could once see that Church bestir her self against the gross Excess of Image-worship as she does against those that do not worship Images at all we might allow something to this Exposition of their Intentions But as far as we can see they that worship the very Images themselves and put confidence in them go for very good Catholicks while we that dare not worship them at all because God has forbidden it are for our forbearance used as they use Hereticks But setting all this aside what signifies the Intention of the Church if it ran through all the Members of it against an express Prohibition in the Scriptures It is not lawful to do that with a Distinction which is forbidden without a distinction God hath said Thou shalt not bow down to Images nor worship them If indeed he had elsewhere made an Exception to this Rule it had been lawful for us to have made use of his permission it had been necessary for us to have observed his command in the excepted Case But where God hath not excepted or distinguished we ought not to do so unless we will open a door to evacuate all divine Laws whatsoever by arbitrary Distinctions and Reservations In short that Worship which they pretend to give to the Saints by their Images has these two terrible Prejudices against it 1. That the Honor which they give to the Saints by their Images supposing none of it to be lost by the way is not to be given to the Saints themselves as we have shewn already 2. That the Worship of Images let it be explicated with all the Fineness and Arts of Disguise they are Masters of is after all to be utterly excluded out of Religion This being a Worship which God will by no means endure should be given to himself having universally prohibited it Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven Image nor the likeness of any thing that is c. which is to my understanding as plain a Prohibition of all Image-worship whatsoever as these words would have been an Injunction of it viz. Thou shalt make to thy self such or such Images and Pictures and shalt bow down before them and worship them if this had been said instead of the contrary Now indeed if this had been said it had been extremely necessary to distinguish between Relative Worship and Absolute Worship between Worship terminated upon the Image and Intended to the person represented by the Image between taking it for a God or a Saint and taking it only for some Representation of the one or the other But as in that case such distinctions had been very necessary so as the case stands they are vain and impertinent For if Image-worship had been commanded or permitted still we had been to worship Images but as Images But it being forbidden we are not to worship them at all I say if it had been allowed we must indeed have worshipped them with a Distinction but as it is forbidden we must not worship them tho with a distinction because 't is forbidden without any distinction and as universally as words can express any thing M. de Meaux says that after the same manner we ought to understand the Honor which they pay to Reliques after the Example of the Primitive Church The Example of the Primitive Church shall be considered in its place In the mean time If the Worship of Images and the Worship of Reliques are to stand or fall together we have already seen what will become of this having shewn how unsuccesfully they plead for the other But if M. de Meaux pleads for the Practice of the people or even the Doctrine of his Church in this Point he must pardon us if we do not think fit to take general Apologies for a reasonable Inducement to do those things which he was not willing to name in particular We may say in general says M. de Meaux That if Protestants would but consider how the Affection which we bear to any one propagates it self without being divided to his Children to his Friends and after that by several degrees to the Representation of him to any Remains of him and to any thing which renews in us his Remembrance If they did but conceive that Honor has the like Progression seeing Honor is nothing else but Love mixed with Respect and Fear In fine if they would but consider that all the exterior Worship of the Catholick Church has its Source in God himself and returns back again to him They would never believe that this Worship which he himself alone animates could excite his Jealousie M. de Meaux considered very well that it was much better to put us off with this general Account than to mention the Particulars he goes about to Justifie It seems the Worship of Reliques is intended for the Honor of the Martyrs and the Worship of the Martyrs for the Honor of God But what kind of Superstition might not be defended by such Apologies as these if men's Blood Bones Teeth Hairs Coats Girdles Shoes and such like little things may be incensed if they may be exposed with a Venite ad adorandum to receive the Prostrations of the people Catech. R. de Cultu sanct in the presence of Christ himself whom they suppose to be bodily present upon the Altar if they may be sought unto for great Graces and for miraculous Cures if
three First Ages for the worship of Saints Images and Reliques upon supposition that the Doctors towards the close of the Fourth Age were theirs in these Points And then I shall not fear to give the truest Account I can of those Practices at that time which grew afterward into the Superstitions we now complain of Monsieur de Meaux sayes It will not appear very likely that M. Daille should understand the sentiments of the Fathers of the three first Ages better than those who gathered as I may say the Succession of their Doctrine after their deaths These Gentlemen I perceive will content themselves with any pretence to shift off the Tryal of their Doctrines and Practices by the Authority of the three First Ages For whether that be likely or not which M. de Meaux here puts yet I hope we may look into the Writings of the most Primitive Fathers to see how things went in their times And it is very likely that M. Daille might understand the sentiments of the Fathers of the Three first Ages as well as he understood the Sentiments of those of the Fourth And so long as we can have recourse to the undoubted Writings of the three first Ages we may get the Doctrine of those Fathers this way with a little more Assurance then by guessing what their Sentiments were from the Books of their Successors Which every reasonable Man must acknowledge unless it be reasonable to suppose that the Fathers of the Three first Ages did not understoud their own Sentiments so well as the Fathers of the Fourth understood them Now in the first place the profound Silence of the three First Ages and the better half of the Fourth as to the Worship of the B. Virgin and the Saints and their Images and Reliques should be enough to determine the first Point in question And this Silence is not only directly confessed by some of our Adversaries but as effectually confessed by the rest that labor to find some hints of these Practices in these primitive Fathers but by such Interpretations and Consequences that 't is almost as great a shame to consute as to make them Now the Silence of these Fathers ought not to be rejected as an incompetent Proof because it is but a Negative For since we pretend that these Practices are Innovations and were never heard of in the Ancient Church It is not reasonable to demand a better Proof of it than that in their Books some of which give large and particular Accounts of their Worship and of their Doctrines concerning Worship we can no where meet with the least Intimation or Footstep of them Would our Adversaries have us bring express Testimonies out of the Fathers against these things as if they wrote and disputed by the Spirit of Prophecy against those Corruptions that should arise several Ages after they were dead We have as I shall shew other ways of discovering their Sentiments besides this that they make not the least mention of these Services But to demand more than their perpetual Silence in these Cases is unreasonable because no satisfactory Account can be given of it but this That the Worship we speak of was indeed no part of their Religion Had it been some indifferent Rite or Ceremony that we contend about this Argument from the Silence of the Fathers against its Antiquity might with some Colour be rejected because it were unreasonable to expect that they should take notice in their Writings of every Custom of how little moment soever And yet we find that in matters even of this slight nature in comparison they have not been wanting to give us very much Information But it is altogether incredible that so notable and famous a Part of the the Worship of Christians as that which is now given to the B. Virgin and to the Saints should not be mentioned by any one of them if it had been the Custom of those times Justin Martyr Athenagoras Tertullian Minutius Felix all the Apologists or at least one of them would have taken some notice of it especially since this part of their Religion would have needed Exposition and Defence more than all the rest for it would have made them obnoxious to the Recriminations of the Heathens and brought all their own Arguments upon themselves which they had used against the Heathens in Defence of their own Worshipping the one God and him only But perhaps they all agreed toconceal this Saint-Worship from the Heathens for the same Reason why Salmeron thinks the Apostles and Evangelists concealed it at first from both Jews and Gentiles because forsooth it had been hard to require it of the Jews who had been taught to pray to God only Salmer in 1 Tun. 2. Disp 8. and to Worship none but him and by publishing it Occasion had been given to the Gentiles to think that many Gods were now offered them instead of that multitude of Gods which they had forsaken A very likely Reason thus far That if this had been the Doctrine of the Church it was highly necessary to keep it secret till Heathen Idolatry were extinguished and none should be left to upbraid the Christians with removing the old Gods of the Heathens to make way for new ones of their own And without all doubt those that were prevail'd upon in every Persecution by Force and Flattery to revolt from Christianity though they had been false to the rest of their Religion yet were true to this Secret of it and never discovered to the Heathens that whatever the Church pretended they had been taught to say Ave Maries to the B. Virgin and to Worship her and the dead Saints and Martyrs with Prayers and Hymns c. I thank this Jesuit however for confessing so manifest a Truth that this Adoration of Saints was not fit to be exposed to the Gentiles But if Matters were carried thus I think they were not carried with great Sincerity This might be like the Policy of Jesuits but it did not by any means become the Simplicity of Christians And yet I think a Jesuit would hardly have carried a Secret in his Sleeve so dangerous to be discovered and so impossible to be concealed For that the Church should have the good Fortune to conceal it for above 300 Years from the Idolatrous Philosophers and Priests of the Gentiles was of all other things that passed in that long time the most miraculous and requires such a Faith to believe it as believes a thing the more the more incredible it is But though this in the Opinion of all indifferent persons will be a sufficient Prejudice against supposing that the Church kept her Doctrine and Practice from the Knowledge of her Enemies Yet I believe it will be a stronger Prejudice against it amongst those of which number I profess my self to be one that honor the Memories of the Ancient Martyrs and love them for their Constancy to the Death in adhering to our dear Lord and Master Jesus that
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
late If the Church had then for an hundred and fifty years together served her as the Queen of Heaven with solemn Rites of Worship That man who ventured to disparage the B. Virgin in this fashion was foolish to Admiration But if Origen knew that the Church had given her these Honors from the beginning he wise was enough to have stopped this Madman's mouth with that Argument or rather to have said nothing of him since no body could need any instruction to hold him for a ridiculous Fellow But he thought fit to instruct the people how they should answer this man and that in this manner If Mary was pronounced Blessed in those hymns that were uttered by the instinct of the holy Spirit How can any man say that our Saviour denied her Origen speaks very honorably of the B. Virgin but yet he represents her as an instance of humane Frailty and one that needed Forgiveness of sins as well as the Apostles and that because she was offended as he it seems was perswaded at the Passion of Christ What says he do we think that when the Apostles were scandalized that the Mother of our Lord was free from it And so he interprets those words A Sword shall pierce through thy own Soul also by this paraphrase The Sword of unbelief shall pierce thy own Soul and thou shalt be smitten with the edge of Doubtfulness I doubt it will not be convenient to enquire of Origen any further As for Athenagoras Minutius Felix St. Cyprian Arnobius Lactantius they have left us nothing at all concerning her unless St. Cyprian says somewhere that Christ was conceived in the Womb of a Virgin c. But if that be all I am sure he neglected some very inviting occasions of putting his People in mind of a great deal more which he ought not to have neglected if the Doctrine of the Primitive Church concerning the B. Virgin had been the same with that of the pretended Catholick Church at this day And so we are gotten out of the three first Ages But perhaps Athanasius makes amends for all that were before him in the Sermon upon the Annuntiation of the Blessed Virgin That Sermon I confess is a very surprising thing to any man that considers there was not the least preparation for the Doctrine it would pretend to establish in the foregoing Ages But then this as well as many other things that go under the name of Athanasius is none of his as Bellarmin and others of his party obliged by the Strength of Truth have actually confessed And in all probability it was written no less than 348 Years after his Death In his genuine Works there is more frequent mention of the Virgin then in the Fathers before him especially in his Orations against the Arrians which he wrote about the Year 360. But we must go further down to find where her Worship began for as yet there is no Appearance of it Hilary who wrote about the same time says nothing new in this Matter Hilar. Pictav Com. in Matth. p. 497. He does Industriously assert the Virginity of Mary which and the like things were done by some of those that went before him But of her Worship not a word To conclude the Fathers do generally speak of her without the Addition of any Title of Honor. For the most part they call her Mary sometimes the Virgin the Mother of our Lord rarely and the mother of God never I think till the Church was obliged to guard the belief of the Divine Nature of Christ by all kind of proper Expressions And even then this honourable Appellation was used not for her sake but to secure the right Faith of our Lord's Divinity especially against the Nestorian Heresie In short the Protestants do customarily mention the Virgin Mother with honorable Additions beyond what the Fathers of the Three First Ages did But we Worship her just as they did that is Rev. 19.10 not at all For my own part when I consider that she had the Glorious Priviledge to be the Mother of God I should have much ado to forbear regretting the little Regard wherewith some of the Fathers speak of her sometimes but that I find our Saviour himself in those * Luke 2.49 Ch. 11.27 28. Joh. 2.4 three Sayings concerning her which are reported in the Gospels not to Magnify her over greatly And the Truth is I should have wondred at that too had not the excess of later Devotion to her put me in mind that the H. Writers were guided by a Spirit of Prophecy and have therefore recorded nothing that Christ said to his most H. Mother but what might be of use in such times as these §. 8. Let us now see whether the Religion of Praying to Martyrs and Saints and Worshipping their Images and Reliques has the Authority of the Primitive Church and all Antiquity It may very well be presumed that it has not unless we think that the Fathers preferred the other Saints before the B. Virgin But to say the Truth tho hitherto the Virgin and the rest of the Saints were equal as to any Religious Worship neither she nor they being yet thought of for that purpose yet when Superstition at length began to creep into the Church the Martyrs got the start of the Virgin In process of time her Worship overtopped theirs but theirs began before her turn came The most holy Religion of the Gospel was delivered all at once and which is most considerable it is the Religion which God hath sealed and so it was and is all of a piece But the Corruption of that Religion coming on by degrees as contingent Occasions gave Birth and Growth to it could not be regularly contrived but would need a great deal of patching and mending to bring it to a Face of Uniformity As for Praying to Saints I know not how any Man can imagin that the Primitive Fathers taught or used it who considers in what Terms they taught that God only was to be Invocated That they counted the Worship of Invocation a better Sacrifice than those which had been offered to God as the Law of Moses required and which all acknowledge were to be offered to God only and that they argued the Divinity of Christ from hence that Prayers were to be offered to him Irenoeus tells us that the Church did nothing by Invocations of Angels or Incantations to them or any other evil Curiosity Fevardentius pretends that this excludes evil Spirits only from being invoked But let any unprejudiced Man judge by what follows Iren. lib. 2. c. 57. But says he she directs her Prayers chastly purely and manifestly to the Lord that made all things Now according to Fevardentius he should have added and to good Spirits also For 't is a vain thing to say that he intended to oppose those only that Worshipped malicious Spirits since if this had been his Intention the plain laws of Discourse had obliged him rather to omit
the Worship of God in this opposition than the Worship of good Spirits And doubtless upon this supposition he would have said that we do not use Prayers and Hymns to evil but to good Spirits I cannot but set down here the words of the Church of Smyrna in their Golden Epistle concerning the Martyrdom of Polycarp It seems the Jews had suggested that if the Christians could gain his Body they would perhaps forsake Christ and Worship him their Love and Reverence of that holy Man their Bishop was so well known Against which suggestion the Smyrnians thus declare themselves These men know not that we can neither forsake Christ who suffered for the Salvation of all that are saved the Innocent for the Guilty nor Worship any other Him truly being the Son of God we adore But the Martyrs and Disciples and Followers of the Lord we justly love for that extraordinary good mind which they have expressed toward their King and Master of whose happiness God grant that we may partake and that we may learn by their Examples This Testimony of the Church of Smyrna I rather produce in this place because in two Ancient Manuscripts cited by the most learned Arch. B. Vsher the Latin Translation of their Protestation runs thus See Act. Usser Polic. or Answ to the Jesuita Challenge Praying to Saints We Christians can never forsake Christ who vouchsafed to suffer so great things for our sins nor give away the Worship of Prayer to any other Clemens Alexandr defines Prayer by its Relation to God in which as (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bellarmin acknowledges he was followed by divers Fathers in the Fourth Century But nothing can be more plain than this Passage of his Since there is but one good God both We and Angels pray to him (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Strom. l. 7. p. 721. alone that those good things may be given us which we want and those continued which we have If half so plain a Testimony could have been produced out of the genuine Writings of these Fathers for praying to others besides God as these are for praying to God alone I fear we should have been counted very impudent in our Appeals to the Primitive Church and the best Antiquity The same Person had said not long before We do justly honor God by Prayer and with Righteousness we send up this best and most Holy Sacrifice And I find this to have been another general Notion of the Worship of Prayer amongst the Ancients that it was a Sacrifice much better than those more sensible Sacrifices that were either offered by the Gentiles or required by the Law of Moses and more pleasing to God Thus says Tertullian We sacrifice for the Health and Safety of the Emperor but we do it to our God and his God and we do it as God hath commanded with (c) Pura prece pure Prayer or purely with Prayer for so he is to be understood in as much as he opposeth the Purity of Prayer to the (d) Odoris aut sanguinis Yert ad Scap. c. 2. Sacrifices of Intense and Victims And therefore says he We pray rather for the Health of the Emperor desiring it of him who can give it This smart Writer did in his way very plainly represent our Doctrine in the fore-mentioned Saying We Sacrifice says he but to our God and his God There he represents Sacrifice as due to God only But we do it as God hath commanded with pure Prayer There he represents Prayer as a Sacrifice more Excellent than that of Odors and Blood which the Gentiles offered And can any thing be more evident than that he appropriates this Sacrifice so to God that it ought not to be given to any else Thus also he proves against the Jews That we must now sacrifice to God not earthly but spiritual Sacrifices for 't is written A contrite Heart and an humble Heart Ad. Jud. c. 5. is a Sacrifice to God and elsewhere Offer the Sacrifice of Praise and pay thy Vows to the most High And therefore a little after he affirms Christ to be the High Preist of eternal Sacrifices in Opposition to those that are abolished Nay he says that the pure Offering (e) Simplex oratio Adv. Marei c. 1. foretold in Malachy which all Nations should bring is the Simplicity of Prayer from the pure Conscience which he elsewhere describes by Blessing and Praise and Hymns and so is the same with Pure Prayer mentioned before This is enough to shew that in his days the Church would no more have offered Invocations of Prayer or Praise to any but to God then they would have offered Victims to any but to him if they had been continued in the Service of the Church And by this we may see in what sort we are to understand that Offering for the Martyrs which we read of in Tertullian and St. De Coronâ c. 3. De Exhort c. 13. Demen. Cyprian Says Tertullian We make Oblations for them that are departed in Memory of their Birth-days i. e. of the Days wherein they were crowned with Martyrdom And thus St. Cyprian writing to the Church of Carthge concerning Celerinus and making mention of his Uncles Laurentinus and Ignatius says Cypr. Epist 34. Rig. We offer Sacrifice for them you may remember as often as we celebrate the Days upon which the Martyrs suffered with an Anniversary Commemoration And thus he writes to the Clergy of Carthage concerning the Confessors that should dye in Prison Note down the days of their death Id. Epist 37. that we may Celebrate their Commemorations amongst the Memories of the Martyrs c. The meaning of which is that they gave Thanks and offered Praises to God for those holy Persons by name who had constantly suffered Death for the Faith of Christ These were the Sacrifices they offered for the Martyrs the Sacrifices of Praise not excluding what by other Authorities is evident enough the Sacrifice of Prayers for them too and for all the departed Saints that they might at length obtain the promised Resurrection I do not say that the Worship of Christians consisted only of these Sacrifices See Mr. Mede upon Mincha purum They had the Oblation of Bread and Wine besides before the Eucharist and the Representative Sacrifice of our Lord's Body and Blood in the Eucharist It is enough that the Religious Invocations of the Church were held to be the Worship of Sacrifice and that of (f) Sacrificiorum officia potiora Adv. Mass a more excellent Kind then the earthly Sacrifices of Jews and Gentiles as Tertallian calls them And let the pretended Catholicks tell us to whom the Worship of Sacrifice should be offered but to God They have I confess kept the Stile of the Antient Church and pretend to Sacrifice to God and to him only But the Change which they have made in the Doctrine and Practice of the Church hath obliged them to apply that
Style otherwise than the Antient Church did Exp. §. 3.4 When they speak of offering Sacrifice as Monsieur de Meaux does in his Exposition we are according to the use of that Phrase in their Writers to understand nothing but the pretended Sacrifice of the Mass But why must not the people be taught that the Worship of Prayers and Hymns is a Sacrifice too For this was the current Doctrine of the Primitive Church There is a good Reason for it because they do not pay this Worship to God alone as the Primitive Church did And now as for those passages concerning Oblations and Sacrifices already produced See Constit Apostol lib. 7. c. 3. and many more to the like purpose that might be produced out of the Fathers I do not know how far a willing mind might go to apply them to the Sacrifice of the Mass And when that is done it is but a little straining more and they will interpret Gregory Nazianzen to their own mind too who in his Funeral oration upon St. Basil thus speaks of him And now he is in Heaven (g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I think he offers Sacrifices for us and Prayers for the People But I am confident Nazianzen did not so much as think that Basil said mass in Heaven for him and the People To proceed Origen is as express to this purpose as his Master Clemens Alex. He saith we must pray to him (h) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orig. contr Cels lib. 8. alone that is God over all and we must pray to the word of God his only begotten and the first-born of every Creature and we must humbly beseech him as our high Priest to present our prayer for it is known to him to his Father and the Father of them that live according to the word of God This is enough for one man to say in so plain a case And yet I will add what he says about this matter from another common Argument viz. that the Divinity of Christ is clearly gathered from our making prayers to him For upon those words of the Apostle With all that call upon the Name of the Lord Jesus he saith Orig. in Decim ad Rom. lib. 8. that the Apostle pronounces Jesus Christ to be God in that his name is called upon and that to call upon the name of the Lord and to adore God is one and the same thing The Reason of this which I have ventured to offer is That Prayer does ascribe Omnipresence as well as other divine Perfections to the Being to which it is made And this is that reason which Tertullian as I think Yert de Orat cap. 1. hath expressed in these words That Faith offers its Religion to him only of whom it is confident that he sees and hears every where For by Religion he meant Prayer which is the Subject of that discourse to which these words belong Thus Novatian also Nov. de Trin. c. 14. If Christ be only a man how is he every where present to those that call upon him since this is not the nature of Man but of God to be present in all places And in the same place If Christ be only a Man why is a Man invoked as a Mediator in prayers since the Invocation of Man must be judged ineffectual for the procuring of Salvation And to name no more Athanasius frequently uses this kind of Argument For speaking of prayers made to the Son of God he says Athan. Orat. contra Arrian 2.4 the Saints do not think it just to invoke him to be their Helper and Refuge who was made or created And no man would pray to receive any thing from the Fathers and the Angels or from any of the other Creatures from whence he concludes that because the Apostle in 1 Thess 3.11 does not only pray to God the Father but also to our Lord Jesus Christ that therefore Christ is God It seems it was not then the way of Christians to joyn God and St. Michael God and the Virgin God and all the Saints in Invocations of prayers There were then no such things known as Confession to God and to St. Michael and to the Blessed Virgin and to the Saints as giving Glory to the Holy Trinity and to the Virgin as saying Jesus Mary help c. had any thing of this Nature been done in those times I doubt here had been a good Argument lost by which the Fathers proved Christ to be God Nor would Athanasius have been so meer a Child as to attaque the Arrians with an Argument to which the Doctrine and Practice of the Church had afforded so obvious and effectual an Answer To all which I shall add but that Canon of the Laodicean Synod Synod Laod. cap. 35. that Christians ought not to forsake the Church of God and depart aside and Invocate Angels Therefore if any man be found using this secret Idolatry let him be accursed because he hath forsaken our Lord Jesus Christ I make no question but if there had been occasion Saints had been put into the Canon as well as Angels But then what word could they have thought of instead of Saints to answer Corners Angulos which Crab thrust into the old Latin Translation instead of Angels Angelos is not very easy to imagine Concerning which pleasant Forgery see Bp Vshers Answer to the Jesuits Challenge p. 469. c. And now if we consider the Doctrine of these primitive Fathers concerning Prayer I suppose we shall not wonder that in those places where we might well have expected some instance of praying to Saints or some Recommendation of it if any such Practice had been amongst them that I say there is nothing at all Cypr. de Laps p. 177. no not the least intimation of it Not where St. Cyprian so vehemently admonished those that were fallen in persecution to pray to God for themselves and to intreat the Brethren to do so too Tert. de Panitentiâ c. 9. Not where Tertullian describes the Humiliations and Prostrations of the Penitents in both which places one would have expected that the Intercession of the Saints and Martyrs should have been implored Not where Justin Martyr describes the Service of the Church in her Religious Assemblies nor in any of the ancient Apologies nor in any ancient account of the Religious Worship of Christians Apost Constit. lib. 7 8. no not in the Apostolical Constitutions though a later work then it pretends to be where the order of the Churches Service is very particularly described We are not to wonder at it I say for the declared Doctrine of the Church was against it § 8. As for the Worshipping or as M. de Meaux calls it the Honouring of Images we might spare the pains of inquiring what the sence of the Ancient Church was concerning it it is so hard to believe that they should worship the Images of the Saints who did not so much as
pray or give any Religious Worship to the Saints themselves But this practice is so far from having the Countenance of the Primitive Church and All Antiquity that in the best Ages there were men of great name in the Church that did not believe so much as the Art of Imagery and Picture lawful to be practised by a Christian Saith Clemens Alex. Protrept ad Gentes We are plainly forbidden to meddle with that cheating Art For the Prophet Moses saith Thou shalt not make the likeness of any thing either in Heaven or in Earth Tertullian hath a great deal to this purpose in his Discourse of Idolatry But those words are to my thinking very remarkable Well did the same God require the likeness of a Serpent to be made by an extraordinary Command Tert. de Idol c. 5 6. who by his Law forbad the making of any likeness If thou observest the same God thou hast his Law Make no likeness If also thou lookest to the Precept of making an Image afterward do thou also imitate Moses Make no Image whatsoever against the Law unless God also command thee in particular so to do Which words are so plain and full that they leave no room for that frivolous pretence that these Fathers intended no other Images but those of the Heathen Gods And that instance of the Brazen Serpent which was no Idol till the Jews made it one clearly shews the contrary But if it be said that the Authority of these men is to go for nothing because they were mistaken in condemning Image-Work so universally as they did I grant that their zeal against Image-Worship transported them beyond the bounds of Reason especially Tertullian who in the foresaid Book tells us Ibid. c. 2. that Artificers of Statues and Images and all carved or engraven works of this kind were brought into the World by the Devil But this I say that if Images had in those days been used in Christian Churches so much as to excite the Devotion of the Faithful much more to receive their Adoration neither would these Fathers have condemned the making of Images nor if they had would the Church have born with so great an Outrage upon their Doctrine and Practice Some one at least would have appeared in behalf of the Catholick Church as Melchior Canus has done in behalf of the Roman Church against the Eliberine Council in this matter who sticks not to say that Their Law for taking away Images Canus loc Theol. l. 5. c. 4. was not onely imprudently but impiously established The Censure which he so long after pass'd upon that Council had been fastned upon these men presently by more than one as good as Canus if Image-Worship had but been allowed then as it is now established in the Roman Communion They were not so tame as to suffer their Worship to be affronted by their own Members without taking notice of it But the truth is Eusâ—h Hist lib. 7. c. 18. Iren. l. 1. c. 24. the Monuments of the Ancient Church affords us no accounts of Images any where but either in Libraries or * Concerning the Image of the Syrophenician Woman c. see Dr. Still against T. G. p. 253. at a House-door or in the Holes of Hereticks or in the Temples of false Gods We read indeed of one Picture of Christ or some Saint which Epiphanius found in a Curtain of the Church of Anablatha but he took it down and tore it in pieces Such accounts as this are not for the credit of Image Worship which indeed came into the Church at the tail of other Corruptions And the Fathers are so unanimous and positive against it that I will shut up this matter with the testimony of a great many Fathers in one testimony viz. that of the Eliberine Council held about the beginning of the fourth Age. It is our pleasure Concil Elib Can. 36. that Pictures ought not to be in the Church lest that which is worshipped or adored should be painted upon Walls As for the Reliques of Saints and Martyrs we hear of none for the three first Ages but their Bodies nor any thing concerning them but that they were interred with all possible Respect that could be expected from Men and which is more from Christians The honour which by the custom of the World we learn is proper to the Bodies of the Dead is to give them a decent Interment This was maintained and cherished by the ancient Christians Orig. contra Cels lib. 5. Tertul. de Animâ not onely because reasonable Souls once lived in those Bodies which they committed to the ground which was an Inducement common to men but because also those Bodies and Souls were to be once again joyned at the Resurrection which was an Inducement proper to Christians It was the same kind of honour which they shewed to the Bodies of Martyrs though heightned with the expressions of a more than ordinary love Thus after the Martyrdom of St. Stephen Devout men * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 8.2 carried him out to be buried and made great lamentation over him The like account did the Smyrnians give of their disposing the Bones of Polycarp which they reckoned more valuable than precious Stones more precious than Gold M. de Meaux sure would not desire a farther progression of Love and Honour But with this degree they contented themselves for say they †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sm. Epist supr We committed them to burial where it was usual And thus Pius the first of that name Bishop of Rome Take care saith he of the Bodies of the Holy Martyrs as of Gods Members Cura quemadmodum curaverunt Curare here is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pius Epist 2. Tom. 1. Con. See Cypr. Ep. 37. Cypr. Epist 2. after that manner that the Apostles took care of Stephen ' s. Thus the Clergy of Rome in their Epistle to the Clergy of Carthage when St. Cyprian was absent To speak of a matter of very great consequence If the Bodies of Martyrs or others be not buried it is a very dangerous fault in those that are to look after this business So that in those days it should seem to be a Charge entrusted to select Persons that the Bodies of Martyrs and other Christians should be buried and this not onely at Carthage but at Rome too But why should I multiply Testimonies in so plain a case Had the Reliques of Martyrs and Saints been worshipped in those best times as they were afterward how come it to pass that in all the Monuments of those times no mention of any such thing is to be found When the Trade of Reliques began in the Church there was noise enough made of it and the best Authors acquaint us with the News But it had been no News if the Trade had been begun before Why was no such thing objected to the Christians by their watchful Enemies for three hundred
not reach to the Case of Images which they had not But where the state of the Controversie lay between the Christians and the Heathens about Temples and Altars and what was the difference between the one and the other is too long to insert here and therefore I refer the Reader to Mr. Mede's Discourse concerning Churches Par. 1. Book 2. where 't is handled with exquisite diligence But if Petavius his reason hath any probability why were not Images brought in presently upon Constantine's coming to the Empire at least after the death of Julian For then the Church enjoy'd Peace and Power unless it were to be said that by stepping boldly into that practise assoon as they had gained power which they had utterly condemned in their distress they knew that they should bring the reproach of insincerity upon their Profession and that therefore it was more advisable to step into it by degrees But he that can believe this of the Ancient Church must not pretend any great Reverence for it But whereas Petavius thought this to be the likely reason why we hear not of Images so long together viz. that it would furnish the Heathens with objections I shall not fear to oppose this Conjecture with another and to say that it is more likely and credible that if the Antient Fathers had thought it lawful to bow down to Images and to Worship them they would have brought this practise in with one consent and that because the Gentiles had been accustomed to the worshipping of Images For it is incomparably more easie to bring men from worshipping some Images to worship others as the Jesuits knew by experience than from worshipping Images to worship none at all Nay it is yet more likely that Images were brought into several Churches in the fifth Age in compliance with the inclinations of many of the Gentiles who now the Church shined with the Glory of the World thronged into it before they had worn off their Superstition and fondness of Images and that the reason why it was done no sooner was this that the Zeal of the Ancient Church against Images being yet fresh in the minds of men must needs hinder their coming into any use immediately and leave it to be a work of some time And it is not unlikely that Petavius himself was well aware of these things for otherwise he was not likely to confess that in this Controversie about Images we are not to have regard to the Examples and Orders of the more ancient Church but rather of latter times which is in more civil terms to confess it was an Innovation for surely this learned Jesuit knew better than to say that in a Controversie about the Antiquity of worshipping Images we ought rather to regard latter times than the Ancient Church But they that will find Church-Authority for Image-Worship must go down yet lower even beyond the fifth sixth and seventh Ages of the Church Pictures were in the fifth Age brought into divers Churches for Ornament and Instruction The Histories of the Old and New Testament and at length the Passions of Martyrs and stories of Saints were to be seen upon the Walls of Churches Indeed when the seventh Age was now coming in we find the People of Marseilles began to worship Images which Serenus * Greg. lib. 9. Ep. 9. ad Serenum their Bishop discerning broke 'em down Which breaking of them Gregory the Great disallowed because he thought Images were instead of Books to them that could not read but the worshipping of them he disallowed as much as Serenus It is likely enough that some unwarrantable regard to Images began about the same time to obtain in other places For in the seventh Age there were warm Controversies about it which grew to such a heat in the Reign of Leo Isaurus that he commanded the Images to be broken down But Superstition had gotten such an head that this would not do but his Son Constantine was forced to call together a Council which consisted of 338 Bishops to put an end to those Troubles if it might be done And they did their parts effectually for they did not onely decree against the worshipping of Images but the retaining of them Now thirty years after this towards the end of the Eighth Age another Council was assembled at Nice by the promotion of the Empress Irene in which Image-Worship was stoutly maintain'd but with such kind of Arguments that if I were for the Worship of Images I should be very well content to lose the advantage of the Councils Authority provided I might never be reproached with their Reasoning The Cause was upheld by Adrian I. then Bishop of Rome who sent the Acts of this second Nicene Council to Charles the Great Charles calls a Council of Italian German and French Bishops at Frankford in which it was determined against the Constantinopolitan Council that Images might be retained and smartly concluded against these Nicene Fathers that without impiety they could not be worshipped It was unlucky that the late beginning of Antiquity for the Worship of Images should be discredited by such an Authority and robb'd of all pretence to Vniversality And therefore Petavius as others had done comforts himself with that vain pretence that the Council of Frankford * Petav. Dog Th. Tom 5. Par. 2. Lib. 15. understood not the sence of the Nicene Bishops It is a vain pretence because the Acts of the Nicene Council lay before the Fathers of Frankford But the Nicene Doctrine was condemned about 32 years after this at Paris and was indeed generally opposed in the Western Churches So that it seems there is some reason why Image-Worshippers should not regard the Examples and Constitutions of the Antient but rather of the latter times of the Church But when began the Worship of the Blessed Virgin And why have we forgotten her all this while Even because the Fathers forgat her first 'T is true we find in Gregory Nazianzen's †Greg. Naz. Orat. 18. T. 1. Oration upon St. Cyprian the story of Justina the Virgin calling upon the Virgin Mary to defend her against the unchast designes of Cyprian who if we may believe the Tale was once a Conjurer at Antioch c. But by St. Cyprian's Life written by Pontius his Deacon it is evident that this story is void of all circumstance of Truth * Bar. A. D. 250. N. 5. See Daillé de Object Cultur p. 51 c. Baronius himself confesses as much And by the endeavours that have been used to mend the Tale for the credit of G. Nazianzen 't is plain that there is no remedy but it must go for an inexcusable business And therefore if ever there was cause from the matter of a Writing imputed to a man of great Name and Authority to conclude 't is none of his this equity is to be shewn to Gregory Nazianzen it being incredible that a man of his Worth and Abilities should either invent such