our Saviour you do not believe many thousands in our Communion either through gross Ignorance some fond Opinions or an excessive and extravagant Devotion are not hugely guilty of Superstition and Idolatry And whether in plain English this is not laying Snares and digging Pits for human Souls 5. Whether these Passages and Expressions which I have cited out of our Offices Breviaries and other allow'd Books of Devotion do not abundantly prove that we Catholicks do horribly exceed the Bounds and Rules which the Catechism the Bishop of Meaux and our Representer set us about Praying to Saints c. And in good earnest Reverend Fathers Is it not manifest that we address our selves to the B. Virgin in the same manner and words as unto GOD and directly ask of her those Gifts and Graces Good Things and Spiritual Blessings which none but GOD can give Do not we express as much trust hope and confidence in her as 't is possible for Men by Words to express to GOD and our B. Saviour Would not the very same words which are here us'd to her serve to signifie the greatest sence awe and reverence and to offer up the greatest and most passionate Desires of our Souls to GOD and our dear Saviour only changing Lady into Lord Mother into Father and sweetest blessed glorious Virgin into sweetest blessed and glorious GOD and Saviour And is this in good truth no more than a manner of Praying Do men upon Earth thus pray for one another or desire others to pray for them And is it no more than to fay Pray for us What Wit of Man and without doing open violence to the plain and natural sense of Words is able to reconcile our Church to herself or these Prayers to this Form Pray for us And is there not here downright saying Have mercy upon us hear us And is not this giving to the Saints what is proper to GOD What man in his Senses ever pray'd in this manner to his absent or present Friends or Brethren upon Earth What sick Mon that was not also absolutely Distracted ever thus desir'd either his Friend or the Congregation to pray for him Or whoever yet pray'd to his Friend or his Brethren or to any Congregation upon Earth thus O Sacred Majesty and Soveraign Lord of Unlimited Power Most merciful Brother c. and the Only hope of Sinners admit me into the Sanctuary of your Audience I fly unto your Protection for I have this Only Refuge to cast my self under the shadow of your Wings I rely on the Bowels of your Mercy in all my Wants Petitions and Tribulations of Body and Mind despise not my Prayers in my Necessities but deliver me from all Dangers Grant me Grace that I may receive pardon for my Sins drive away all Sins from me make me humble and chast and give me purity of Life make my Heart to burn with Love to Christ let all that is due unto me for my Sins be cancell'd by your Merits let the greatness of your Mercy blot out the multitude of mine Offences turn not away your face from me for my trust is in you What can I do without you Or what would become of me if you should turn away your face from me If you should have forsaken me to whom should I then have repair'd that would have lookt upon me with pity and compassion O our most kind Brother Command Compel GOD to have Mercy upon me a Sinner protect me from the Enemy receive me at the hour of Death give me a safe passage into the next World receive my Soul into your hands when it shall leave this Mortal Body take it into your Protection and give it entrance into Paradise and defend me in the Day of Judgment V. Open my Lips O dear Friend c. R. And my Soul shall speak forth thy Praise V. Divine Friend c. be intent to my Aid R. Graciously make hast to help me V. Glory be to Jesus and my Friend c. R. As it was is and ever shall be Now Reverend Fathers deal plainly with me Does not this sort of Prayer thus offer'd to a Creature make even You tremble with horror And yet it is every word taken out of these Prayers and Books I have but just now quoted Tell me then sincerely I beseech you Was ever such a Prayer made by any Person well or sick that was in his Senses either to his Friend his Brethren or any Congregation upon Earth Or is such a Prayer fit to be made to any of them Nay I ask Is such a Prayer fit to be made to any Saint or Angel or to the B. Virgin herself Nay farther Ought we or is it possible for us to Address our selves to GOD and our B. Saviour in any Manner or Words more suitable to that Soveraign Being and our dependance on him And lastly What greater things can be said to the Eternal and ever Blessed Trinity With what face then do we maintain against the Protestants that we do not Pray to the Saints as unto GOD nor ask those things of them which ought only to be ask'd of GOD and our Saviour because they only can give them And that we only pray to them as one Friend desires another upon Earth And with what Justice do we of late complain of them for charging us with these Practices and would make the World believe that they Misrepresent us When it is plain that we are highly guilty of them and are our selves indeed the very Misrepresenters For the Love of GOD our own and our Neighbours Souls Why should we any longer palliate and disguise the matter or by any means defend a Worship for which we can shew no Law of GOD or Nature and which by our own confession is very apt to betray Men into these heinous Sins of Superstition and Idolatry Why should we Reverend Fathers any longer wrong our own Consciences and deceive the World in so important a matter meerly to support the vile Worldly Interest and Honour of a Church that 's afraid to confess herself in an Error Because for base ends she once assum'd the Title of Infallible Without dissembling Reverend Fathers would it not be more for the Honour of our Church and the good and security of Souls not only to condemn and lay aside these but all Prayers whatever to Saints and Angels and ingenuously confess that in this particular however we have been in an Error and the Reformed in the right And that it is abundantly sufficient for Salvation to pray to GOD alone through the Merits Mediation and Intercession only of Jesus Christ our Blessed Redeemer because GOD has commanded no more And if neither our Church nor you for her will acknowledge an Error in so plain a matter and of such vast concern must not we needs be thought People of a monstrous Courage to trust our own Souls and the Souls of our Children in such a Church and in the hands of such Guides Again
the Sick they are healed and the Waves of this troublesome World are soon appeas'd by your Commandment Receive my Soul into your Hands when it shall leave this mortal Body and take it into your Protection for it will be lost with fear and will not know to what side to turn to save itself unless under the shadow of your Mercy And in the Third Petition to omit the rest there are these Words O Blessed Virgin Mother of Unlimited Power ador'd and call'd upon by the Universe give me strength to resist the Temptations of my invisible Enemies If you should have forsaken me to whom should I have then repair'd that would have lookt upon me with pity and compassion My Friend also English'd to me the other-day out of Cardinal Bona's Horolog Ascet or Monastick Clock some Expressions of the same nature This Cardinal I am told either is now alive or but lately dead and is an approv'd Writer as well as of eminent Place and Dignity in our Church In this Piece of his he thus addresses himself to the Virgin Mary And who can doubt that he would have all others do so too Protect me O sweetest Virgin Mary under the shadow of thy Wings What can I do without thee O Blessed Virgin or what would become of me if thou shouldst turn away thy Face from me I had rather undergo the Pains of Hell than that thy Glory and Dignity should be the least diminish'd for a moment of time Let all that know thy Name trust in thee O Glorious Virgin because thou dost not forsake those that trust in thee Let the Light of thy Countenance appear unto me in my Agony and let thy Comfort most merciful Mother make glad my departing Soul. The last Book I shall make use of in this matter is one I have already in my Sixteenth Enquiry of the Second Section mention'd viz. Contemplations on the Life and Glory of Holy Mary c. By J. C. D. D. Licens'd by your Society and Printed in our own Tongue in the Year 1685. In the Epistle Dedicatory the Author teaches That the B. Virgin is not only Empress of Seraphims c. The most exact Original of Practical Perfection which the Omnipotence of GOD ever drew but that by innumerable Titles she claims the Utmost Duty of every Christian as a proper Homage to her Greatness And in the Book p. 7. he says That whatever Gifts are bestow'd upon us by Jesus we receive them by the Mediation of Mary That 't is one great Mark of the Predestination of the Elect to be singularly Devoted to Mary Nor hath any one Petition'd Mary who was refus'd by Jesus or trusted in Mary and was abandon'd by Jesus And p. 12 13 14. That we must chuse her to be our Adoptive Mother Patroness and Advocate and intrust her with whatever we are have do or hope in Life Death and through all Eternity That we are in the Presence of Holy Mary and that she ever surveys the present state of our Souls all our Thoughts and Projects and every tract of our Conversation and therefore that we must put our selves wholly under her Protection And p. 22. in the Resolution he teaches us to resolve thus I will observe thee as my Soveraign Lady Adoptive Mother and most powerfull Patroness relying on thy Bowels of Mercy in all my Wants Petitions and Tribulations of Body and Mind And then immediately follows The Praise as he calls it in this manner Hail Mary c. Vers Open my Lips O Mother of Jesus Resp And my Soul shall speak forth thy Praise Vers Divine Lady be intent to my aid Resp Graciously make hast to help me Vers Glory be to Jesus and Mary Resp As it was is and ever shall be I could Reverend Fathers have been a great deal larger in my Quotations not only from these Offices and Books of Devotion I have now mention'd but also from divers others as Bernardine de Busti in Mariali Cardinal Bonaventure's Works to wit St. Athanasius's Creed the Litany the Benedicite the Benedictus and the other Hymns of Holy Scripture and also the Te Deum all turn'd and apply'd as I am told by this Cardinal to the magnifying of the Power and Goodness of the Virgin Mary to which I could also have added a present French Author of your Society one Father Crasset his Veritable Devotion envers la Sainte Vierge c. with several others but I fear'd this would not only swell my Letter beyond its intended bounds but prove tedious to my Readers let this then if you please suffice And now Reverend Fathers will you suffer me to review this Query from the beginning and upon the whole matter to ask you some serious and important Questions which naturally and necessarily offer themselves And first Whether the good Things we want and the Evil we would be deliver'd from be not the very Matter of our Prayers And if they be Whether it was fairly done of the Authors of the Trent-Catechism to call them only the Manner since even common Sence tells a Man that Good and Evil are the very Matter the things of our Prayers and not the manner of asking them 2. Whether the Caveat which they gave To take heed that what is proper to GOD we give not to any besides him is not enough to convince any considering Man not only that our Practice of Invocating the Saints is extream full of Danger for the ignorant People but also that they very well knew it too And 3. Since 't is apparent that they were sensible that very easily the ignorant People might give that to the Saints which was proper to GOD Whether they had not acted more like Christian Fathers of the Church and Lovers of Souls if either they had told men plainly so that it had been next to impossible to mistake what was due to GOD and what to the Saints or else absolutely to have forbidden Praying at all to Saints unless they could have made it appear either by the Law of Nature or by some positive Law of GOD that it is a Duty commanded which in my Thirteenth Quere of the Second Section I have shew'd they never pretended to and honestly have declar'd to Men That it was both wisest and safest for them and most for the Honour of GOD to put up their Prayers to him only through the alone Merits Mediation and Intercession of Jesus Christ our dear and only Saviour and Redeemer 4. Whether in your Conscience you do believe and by sound Arguments can prove that the People who are naturally prone to Superstition and Idolatry had not been I will not say only abundantly more but absolutely safe from all danger of falling into those grievous Sins if only they had been taught and enjoin'd to offer up their Prayers and Praises to GOD alone through Jesus Christ And whether through the contrary Doctrine and Practice of Praying to the Virgin Mary and other Saints as well as to GOD and
Reverend Fathers What signifies it with the Bishop of Meaux in the Fourth Section of his Exposition to say That in what Terms soever those Prayers which we Address to Saints are couch'd it is the Intention of the Church and of her Faithful to reduce them always to this form Pray for us Can the Intention of the Church and of her Faithful alter the nature of things and the universal meaning of plain words or is any such declaration of Intention to be admitted against the plain literal and grammatical Sence of the Prayers But if the Sence and Intention of the Church be no more than to Pray for us then why are not the Prayers and Hymns in our Publik Offices Breviaries c. at least alter'd to the Sence and Intention of our Church And why are any other Books of Devotion suffer'd to come out contrary to the Sence and Intention of the Church What a ridiculous proceeding to say no worse of it is this of our Church both to compose and set out Prayers to the Saints herself and also permit others to do so too couch'd and express'd in such Words Titles and Phrases as all sensible Mankind make use of to express their Thoughts and Desires in their Prayers to GOD and the Holy Trinity and then cry out That in what terms soevâ—â— those Prayers which we make to the Saints are couch'd it is the Intention of the Church c. Is the Latin Tongue or any Vulgar Language so barren of Words that when our Church would Invocate the Saints and Angels c. she can do it in no other manner words or terms than such in which she constantly and properly addresses herself to GOD and the Holy Trinity Are there not in every Language and particularly in ours apt and proper words and terms in which to express our Souls to GOD and the Holy Trinity And likewise when we would desire the Saints and Angels to Pray for us What folly as well as wickedness is it then to confound these Objects so infinitly different in the same terms and words and to use those to the Saints and Angels which are proper to GOD only Again Reverend Fathers Do not Men generally understand words as they sound and usually signifie And does not the very natural sence of words raise proper and suitable Ideas in Mens minds Now I would fain know of you Reverend Fathers What Thoughts or Idea's a Man can be suppos'd to have who after this manner and for these things thus addresses himself to the Virgin Mary Sacred Majesty Mother of Unlimited Power the only hope of Sinners ador'd and call'd upon by the whole Universe and who by innumerable Titles claim the Utmost Duty of every Christian as a Proper Homage to your Greatness Let the greatness of your Mercy blot out the multitude of mine Offences and deliver me from all Dangers I entrust you with whatever I am have do or hope in Life and Death and through all Eternity I own my self in your Presence and that you survey the present state of my Soul all my Thoughts and Projects and every tract of my Conversation and therefore I put my self wholly under your Protection and will observe you as my Soveraign Lady relying on your Bowels of Mercy in all my Wants of Body and Mind Protect me from the Enemy and when my Soul departs from my Body receive it into the Glory of Paradice c. Now do ye think Reverend Fathers that Invocating the Virgin Mary in such words as these would not make any Men and Women very apt to entertain such an Idea of her as is only fit and proper to be thought of GOD Would not the continual use of such a Prayer make a man insensibly to forget especially in the act and heat of Devotion that she is but a Creature and fancy that he is a praying to some Being of Divine Excellency and Perfections Would not the interior Sentiments of his Mind think ye grow like his exterior Words and Expressions when in any Publick Place of Divine Worship or but in his Closet he is upon his Knees with Hands and Eyes lifted up and in a perfect posture of Adoration But if such a Man should not insensibly by the meer force of using such Words and Expressions fall into the thoughts of her being a GOD and so be guilty of flat Idolatry yet can you deny that he is upon the very brink of that Danger And must it not be esteem'd a Miracle if such a Person is preserv'd from falling into that Precipice Quere II. But Reverend Fathers I am not ignorant that our Disputers think they sufficiently clear their hands of such Writers as the Author of the Contemplation c. Father Crasset Cardinals Bona and Bonaventure Bernardin de Busts c. by saying that such things as they teach and such Prayers and Expressions as they compose and publish are not the Doctrines and Practices of our Church but the extravagant Sayings and Flights of Devotion of some particular Men. Now that this Plea has no place and is of no force against such Prayers as are found in the Offices Breviaries Missals c. of our Church I humbly conceive you 'll easily grant and therefore all such Prayers and that strange Language and Expressions found in them must unavoidably be charg'd upon our Church But then concerning these others I humbly enquire Why the Church if your Order Reverend Fathers be a part of the Church allows and permits such in particular the Contemplations c. and Father Crasset's Book and the same I might ask concerning the other Authors I have but now nam'd for I am told they are all publish'd by the Authority of the Church or by the permission of those appointed by the Church And does not such permission amount to the Churches approbation And does the Church use to approve of any thing that is not the Doctrine of the Church And if it be the Doctrine of our Church Why do ye not speak out and declare so and prove it to be the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles But if you still deny it to be the Doctrine of our Church then pray Why are not the Books call'd in censur'd and forbid to be read and the Men who writ them punisht for False Teachers and Deceivers Again Reverend Fathers if such be not the Doctrine of our Church as I would now fain hope for a very material reason it is not then pray Reverend Fathers let me humbly ask you again Why are these Books let alone to deceive our poor ignorant People into such gross Errors And here also it will be pertinent to enquire of you Reverend Fathers Why such Books as corrupt the Doctrines of Repentance and destroy the necessity of a Holy Life speaking Truth and doing Justice and in a word all the Moral Duties and Practice of a Christian are permitted to walk freely and boldly abroad in the World and debauch Mens Principles and Practices