lift up our Voice to thee Remember us Holy Virgin and return us for these inconsiderable Speeches great Gifts and Riches of your Grace Hail most Gracious the Lord is with thee Interceed O Mistress O Lady O Queen and Mother of God. Sir I must tell you a Story that this Athanasius is said to be the Author of and that considered you will find these words thus cited to smell more of Rome than of Alexandria Your Divines represent him to tell a mighty formal Story of an Image that was abused by the Priests of the Jews the Story is this A Christian having occasion to remove his Family from an House he had long inhabited amongst his other Goods he had an Image of Christ equal to him in length and breadth and in all proportion through forgetfulness leaveth it in a secret place in his House out of which he removed after him a Jew doth inhabit the same House for some time and seeth not the Image a strange Jew sitting there at Dinner immediately espyeth it standing open against a Wall. This is your Athanasius not Bishop of Alexandria but an Athanasius of your own making one while it is open and another while it is in a secret place The Priests and the Jews came together and abuse it with all Villany they Crown it with Thorns and make it drink Vinegar Gall and stick it to the Heart with a Spear out issueth Blood in a great quantity the Powers of Heaven are shaken the Sun is darkned and the Moon looseth her light and from hence saith your young Athanasius we have had Hailstones of Blood and all other like Blood throughout the World. Nay you make him to tell another doughty Story How that Nicodemus that came to Jesus by Night made an Image of Christ with his own Hands and that when he lay upon his Death-bed he deliver'd it to Gamaliel that was Schoolmaster to St. Paul and when that Gamaliel saw that he should die he deliver'd it to James and James left it to Symon and Zacheus which Image came from hand to hand by Succession and continued a long time at Hierusalem and from thence it was carried into Syria and from thence into a City called Berytus not far from Tyre and Sydon where it was abused by the Jews and a great many Wonders were shew'd by that Image This Sir is Athanasius of your Church but not St. Athanasius the Bishop of Alexandria And he that was the Author of these Fables was the Author of that blasphemous Prayer to the Virgin Mary For I suppose you well know that St. Athanasius wrote concerning that matter and the Heresie of the Arrians gave him occasion for it They maintained That Christ was a meer Creature and yet they prayed to him He on the contrary asserted That if he were Created he must not be Invocated and Adored Observe his third Oration against the Arrians To God alone saith he it belongeth to be Worshipped and the Angels themselves are not ignorant hereof for although they excel in Glory yet they are Creatures and are none of those that are Worshipped but of those that Worship the Lord. Again Because that Jesus Christ is not a Creature but is begotten of the Substance of his Father and is by Nature the Son of God therefore is he to be Worshipped 'T is true the Arrians did Worship Christ but it was not upon a good consideration for they Worshipped Christ upon the account that the Word of God abided in him This great Doctor shews them the absurdity of the Reason of their Worshipping of Christ For saith he by the same Reason you may Worship the Saints who have the Word of God abiding in them He doth not at all countenance the Worshipping of Saints but shews that the Worshipping of Saints is the sad consequence of Worshipping of Christ because the Word of God did dwell in him You are pleased to represent St. Athanasius to say thus If you Worship the Man Christ because the Word of God dwelleth there at the same time Worship also the Saints on God's account who hath his Word dwelling in them which you make use of to prove the lawfulness of Praying to Saints when as he useth it as an Absurdity the Arrians run into they Worshipping the Man Jesus only as the Word of God dwelling in him Another Author for Praying to Saints is St. Cyril of Alexandria at the Council of Ephesus who presided in that Council as Pope Caelestine's Legate and at the Second Action or Session of that Council in the Presence of the Bishops that sat in Council and in their Names and in the Names of the whole Council he you say spake these words Hail in all our Names Holy Mother of God most excellent Ornament of the whole World unextinguishable Lamp Crown of Virginity Scepter of right Doctrine Temple never to be destroyed the Dwelling-place of him that cannot be contained within any place Mother and Virgin by whom he is named Blessed in the Gospel who comes in the Name of our Lord. Hail you that did bare in your Holy Virgin 's Womb him that is Immense and Incomprehensible by whom the Holy Trinity is glorified and adored the universal World over by whom the Earth exults by whom Angels and Arch-Angels rejoyce by whom the Devils are put to flight then you say he concludes That none can sufficiently praise that glorious Virgin and ends his whole Discourse with these words Let us fear and worship the undivided Trinity Celebrating with Praises Mary the ever Blessed Virgin to wit the Holy Temple of God and her Son and immaculate Spouse This you say was plain and full and so say I But how do you prove 1. That Cyril was there President of the Council of Ephesus as Legate to Pope Coelestine 2. How do you prove that he said the Words in the Name of the whole Council 3. How do you prove that ever he spake them at all These are three Particulars worthy of consideration I perceive your great Voucher and if so the whole thing is to be suspected as a meer Forgery of your Church You are pleased to give the Words in Greek to Mr. Needham who understands Greek and so do others yet your putting it into Greek will give you no Reputation in this point only that you may understand Greek Therefore Sir Consider in the first place that Cyril of Alexandria did not preside in that Council by Virtue of any Legantine Authority he received from the Bishop of Rome for the Bishop of Rome did not Summon that Council nor indeed had he that Power in him for the first five hundred years after Christ For Cusanus a Cardinal of your Church saith Authoritas Consilii non ita sependit a Congregante ut nisi a Papa congregetur non sit Concillium quia tunc omnia Octo Vniversalia Concilia non fuissent firma quoniam per Imperatores Convâ—cata Leguntur Romanus Pontifex instar aliorum Patriarcharum
their Prayers Aid and Assistance In which Sir you may see that Council doth attribute the power of helping and aiding Men which only belongs to an infinite God to the finite Creature that is not able to help Your Catechism set forth by the Decree of that Council hath it thus Invocandi sunt Sancti eo quod Salute hominum preces assidue faciunt multaque eorum Merita gratiam nos Deus confert beneficia Rogati peccatorum veniam nobis impetrant Concilliant nobis Deus gratiam Where the obtaining of Grace is attributed to them which only belongs to the Intercession of Christ as he is our great High-Priest that is gone into the Holy of Holies not made with Hands to appear in the Presence of God on our behalf for you see he is by your own Council called Solus Redemptor Salvator and what greater blasphemy and contempt against Christ our Lord can be committed than to attribute that which is due to him to any Creature since that God hath given him all Power both in Heaven and in Earth Who is he that can justifie the communicating and attributing this Power to another without the just Charge of Infamous Blasphemy Give me leave to take a view of those Prayers inserted in your Publick Offices performed in your Publick Assemblies in the Breviary or Hours of Sarum which was in great Request before the Reformation wherein I find many blasphemous Strains of Devotion sometimes to the whole Quire of Angels in general sometimes to this or the other Angel in particular as to Michael Gabriel Rapheal whom you dignifie with the Title of Arch-Angels but in that and in other Breviaries you are more liberal of your Prayers to the Saints though they are lower yet your Devotion is carried much higher than to the Angels To the Saints Sir you are more particularly directed and to use the same shew of Affection which you use to God himself In the Office of the Hours as in use at Rome on the Sixth Day of June Sancte Claudi Desolatorum Consolator Captivorum Liberator Resurrectio Mortuorum Lumen Caecorum Auditus Surdorum Sanator Languidorum Tâ—tor Naufragantium Via Errantium Salus in te omnium Sperantium What could have been said more to the Eternal God or Christ himself And can you say this to any Creature whatsoever and escape the guilt of Blasphemy Sir Consider that Prayer in the same Office O Beati Apostoli Dei Solvite me a Peccatis Defendite me a Poenis Inferni de potestate Tenebrarum confortate me ad Regnum aeternum me perducite Omnes Sanctae Virgines Dei adjuvate me ut habeam bonam Voluntatem Cordis Corporis Sanitatem Castitatem post Cursum Vitae meae Societatem perpetuae Beatitudinis Who can loose us from our sins but God through Jesus Christ Who can deliver us from the pains of Hell but God through Faith in the Bloud of his Son Who can deliver us from the power of Darkness but God by the Ministry of the glorious Gospel It was great Blasphemy in the Jews to attribute the great Power by which Christ did work Miracles to the Prince of Devils and then it follows that it is also Blasphemy in our Devotions to attribute that Power to the Creature that belongs alone to Almighty God himself But let us see a little more of your Devotions In the Hours of the Blessed Virgin you pray thus O generous Mary beauteous above all obtain pardon for us apply Grace unto us prepare Glory for us Hail thou Rose thou Virgin Mary Grant us to use true Wisdom and with the Elect to enjoy Grace that we may with Melody praise thee do thou drive away our Sins away O Virgin Mary give us Joys These and divers others like these may be found in those Hours of the Virgin Mary I will give you another touch of this sort of Devotion in the same Offices Reparatrix Salvatrix desperantis Animae Irroratrix Largitrix Spiritualis Gratiae Quod Requiro quod Suspiro Mea Sana Vulnera Et da menti te Poscenti Gratiarum Munera Vt sim Castus Modestus c. Corde prudens Ore studens Veritatem Dicere Malum Nolens Deum Volens pio semper Opere That is Thou Repairer and Saviour of the dispairing Soul dew Giver and Bestower of Spiritual Grace heal my Wounds give to the Mind that prays to thee the Gifts of Grace that I may be chast modest wise in Heart true in my Sayings hating Evil loving God in every good Work and much more to the same purpose I do not now marvel that Bishop Leo the tenth calls her a Goddess and Father Turcelin one of your Order calls her Divinae Majestatis Potestatisque Sociam huic olim Coelestium Mortaliumque Principalium detulit ad hujus arbitrium quo ad hominum Tutela Postulat Terras Maria Coelum naturamque moderatur hac annuente per hanc Divinos Thesauros Coelestia dona largitur The Companion and Partner of Divine Majesty and Power to her long since gave the Principality of all heavenly and mortal things at her Will so far as the Guardianship of Men requires she Rules the Earth Sea Heaven and Nature and she consenting he gives Divine Treasure and Celestial Gifts Nay in the Mass-Books Printed 1538 and used in the Polonian Churches you call the Blessed Virgin Mary viam ad vitam Mundi Gubernatricem Peccatorum cum Deo Reconciliatricem fontem Remissionis Peccatorum lumen humanum The way to Life the Governess of the World the Reconciler of Sinners with God the Fountain of Remission of Sins and at last you Salute her with an Ava Maria Vniversae Trinitatis Mater Hail Mary thou Mother of the whole Trinity Sir you are a Man of Reading and certainly you can never be such a Biggot as to forget your Reason Is not Christ himself the Door and Way to Life Is not he our Reconciler Is not God alone the Governour of the World Doth not our Creed tell us That he is God of Gods and Light of Lights Is not he the Fountain of Pardon Yea Sir he is an unexhaustable Fountain of Remission And what greater Blasphemy can be spoken than to call her the Mother of the whole Trinity Can you think with your self that any thinking number of the Church of England or of any other Reformed Church can be brought to joyn with you in such irrational Practices as these Be pleased Sir not to mistake me I do not pick out these only as the most singular and the worst Forms for such as these are very numerous as may be seen in your Breviaries Missals and Hours of our Lady and in the Rosary of our Lady and Litanies of our Lady the Speculum Rosariorum the Hymns of Saints and Portuices and Manuals these are only the Instances amongst which many others do occur A few things I shall only add instead of many more that might be represented I.
Protect and Secure but saith they will ask the Continuance of that Protection and Security which God was pleased to bestow upon the Church as a Reward of St. Theodore's Sufferings by whose Death the Church might perchance otherwise have sustained some loss But you will say further that St. Gregory prays to St. Theodore to ask for Peace It is true the Bloud of Christ's Martyrs do cry to Heaven see Revel 6. 9 10. And when he had opened the fifth Seal I saw under the Altar the Souls of them that were Slain for the Word of God and for the Testimony which they held and they cryed aloud How long O Lord Holy and True dost thou not judge and avenge our Bloud on them who dwell on the Earth And if he calls for Vengeance upon the Persecutors of the Peace of the Church such a sort of asking St. Theodore might use and for such an Intercession as this St. Gregory might perchance Invocate St. Theodore We find such Invocations as these frequently amongst fanciful Men to Persons to whom they would pay no Worship The Noble Army of God's Martyrs as they do Praise God in Heaven so their Bloud calls for Vengeance upon their Persecutors on Earth Therefore Sir upon the Consideration of the whole Words there is nothing more to be said but that they were a Rhetorical Strein in Honour of the Memory of St. Theodore and not a Prayer to him as an Act of Adoration that he paid to that Saint The Reason that I give is this because that in his Works against Eunomius Lib. 5. he most excellently speaks thus We are taught to understand that whatsoever is Created is a different thing from the Divine Nature and that we are to Adore that Nature only which is Vncreated Whose Character is this that neither at any time began to be or ever shall cease to be Now compare St. Gregory with St. Gregory and you must conclude that there is no Invocation as an Act of Adoration nor Formal Prayer as any Act of Devotion paid to this Saint but as the Psalmist did Invocate the Dragons and Deeps Sun Moon and Stars and as the three Children did call upon the Frost and Snow to magnifie God without any mention of Adoration or Formal Supplication and such an Invocation many fanciful Men at this day use But you are pleased to say that St. Gregory did pray to St. Theodore to get the rest of the Martyrs St. Peter St. Paul and St. John to pray for the several Churches planted by them This plainly sheweth that it was but a Rhetorical Redundancy of Speech of St. Gregory in Memory of that Saint The Cryes of the Martyr's Bloud reacheth to Heaven and is heard by God and his avenging their Bloud upon the Persecutors on Earth secures the Peace of the Church but that St. Gregory did so supplicate St. Theodore for that he believed that the Saints hear our Prayer I cannot gather from his Words beccause that he is so full against giving any Worship unto any but the Uncreated Being so that you may see he intends no Adoration to St. Theodore nor any Prayer to him as if he did believe that St. Theodore did hear him or did make Intercession to God otherwise then his Bloud crying to Heaven for Vengeance Thy Brothers Bloud cryeth to me from the Earth saith God to Cain Gen. 4 10. The Saints Bloud did Cry and St. Theodoret's Bloud did Cry What then were they therefore Mediators of Intercession were they to be Prayed unto and Worshipped as if they could hear our Prayers No St. Gregory doth not Invocate him for those Reasons nor for that End. But those warm Expressions of Holy Men have given great occasion to your Idolatrous Practices their Heats of Zeal were many times beyond the Bounds of their Judgment by which Sir you may observe that we do not depend much upon the Authority of the Fathers we having a more sure Word of Instruction which gives us no Warrant for this way of Worship nor have we any Precedent in the New Testament that ever any Worship to them was ever performed You say that St. Gregory doth explain himself in his Oration on Theodore the Martyr The Christians saith he call on this Martyr as on God's Minister who being Invocated by them he is able to Impetrate for them what Favours he pleases and this you tell us is St. Gregory's Explanation of himself and you tell us that his Prayer was as full and as plain as could be The Church at that time did begin to have great Devotion to the Monuments of their Martyrs not that they did permit any Worship to be paid to them and their great Orators did in their Orations on the Saint whose Memory they kept use a great many Rhetorical Apostrophies which looked like Prayer But I tell you again that they designed no praying to their Saints but did Invocate them as the Ministers of God The Psalmist did so by the Angels the Sun Moon and Stars and it was only in Honorem Sancti not in Adorationem They did use to repeat all their good Words and all their good Works and did speak to their Monuments and their Reliques and is there no difference betwixt Invocation by way of Honour and Invocation in order to Worship The former might perchance be used to St. Theodore but latter not But you press still and say that St. Gregory saith That St. Theodore being Invocated by them is able to obtain what Favours be pleases 'T is true that God doth look upon himself Honoured when we retain a grateful Memory of those who have highly served him and in a most Eminent Manner have suffered for him and many times the word Invocate signifyeth only a calling to and not always a calling upon they spake of their Saints with great Reverence and reported their Works and Services and Sufferings to induce their Hearers to follow their good Examples then according to the custom of the Time they did use to convert their Speeches to the Monuments or Images of these Saints which you call Praying to them which was no more a Prayer than a Poets calling upon his Muse and as for the Intercession you would have us take notice of is no more then the Cry his Bloud makes to Heaven from under the Altar for upon the Account of their Sufferings great Blessings have been bestowed on the Church of God Sanguis Martyrum est Semen Ecclesiae by the Example of their Constancy many have been brought to the Faith and by their Eminent Holiness many have enter'd into so strickt a Course of Life that they have been of great Use in the Church of God and therefore these Fathers did mention the Names of these Martyrs and did as it were speak to them that they might engage their People to follow their good Examples so that with them they might be made partakers of Bliss and Happiness This is all that I can apprehend from St. Gregory