an unfeigned Repentance is absolutely Necessary and not a Verbal one only That it is out of our power and of any Man 's in the World to turn Attrition into contrition We pretend not to dispense with any for not obeying the Command of God We have no Taxa Camere by which the Papists are shewn how all sins are fined in their Church for in that Book Men see at what Charge they may kill a Father or commit Incest with their Sisters But we assure all that the Wages of sin is Death Death Eternal if indulged and not most earnestly repented of And we tell all that Devotion is necessary for all though the Church of Rome hath wayes of gratifying every Inclination so as they that will not lead a strict Life need not and yet may have hopes of Salvation We own their Policy in this Contrivance but do not so much admire their Religious regard to the Salvation of Mens Souls And to conclude though we thus forcibly press all Christian Duties on all Men yet at the same time we warn them not to pretend to Merit Heaven at God's Hand but after they have done their best to confess they are unprofitable servants Wee say of our Charity or whatever else we do in Obedience to God that of his own we give to him and we are bound to thank him both for the will and the Ability to give The most that we pretend to ' is onlie to make a small Acknowledgment by way of Sacrifice for what we have received we beg of God to accept it as a Testimonie of a grateful Mind and we know that his Goodness is so great that he will abundantlie reward an honest and sincere servant though he hath done no more then was his Duty And we hope that what we offer though mingled with many Imperfections he will be pleased to accept for the sake of Christ as if it were perfect These are the Grounds that we go on in our Devotions ' and whatever we do for the Honour of God and thus designing and thus acting and persisting we need not doubt but the good Providence of God which watcheth over his whole Church will in an especial manner watch over this which is so pure a Member of it that he will accept of the Devotions which are offered to him in it and hear the Prayers that are made unto him for it and defend it against all its Enemies on every side which God of his Infinite Mercy grant for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. A DISCOURSE Concerning Invocation OF Saints How shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed Rom. 10. 14. EDINBVRGH Re-printed by John Reid Anno DOM. 1686. A DISCOURSE Concerning Invocation 〈◊〉 Saints AMongst many other very corrupt and erroneous Doctrines of the Romanists the Church of England in her twenty second Article condemns that of Invocatioâ— of Saiâ—â—s as a â—ond thing vainly invented and grounded upon no warrantry of Scriâ—ture but rather repugnant to the Word of God and in her Learned Homily against the peril of Idolatry passes yet a much severer Censure upon it and makes all those that believe and practise it Guilty of the same Idolatry that was amongst Ethnicks and Gentiles How sharp soever this charge may be thought to be 't is you see the plain sense and judgment of our Church and what I believe is the Truth and no hard matter to make good To proceed therefore in the easiest and clearest method I can I purpose to sum up all that I think needfull to be said upon it under these following heads 1. What 's the profest Doctrine and practice of the Church of Rome as to Invocation of Saints 2. On what occasion it began and spread in the Church 3. That there is not the least p â— of for it from Scripture 4. That there is no proof for it from the Fathers of the first three hundred years and more 5. That there is full and evident proof in Scripture against it 6. That the Fathers of the first and purest Ages till after three hundred are all express and positive in thâ—â—â— writings against it 7. That the Doctrine and Practice of Saint-Invocation is impious and Idolatrous I. What 's the profest Doctrine and Practice of the Church of Rome as to Invocation of Saints AN Account of this I shall give you first in general as it is set down in the decree of the Trent Council and then lay it before you more at large distributed under several particulars In the twenty fifth Session of that pack'd Synod we have its decree in these words That all Bishops and Pastors that have the cure of souls do diligently instruct their Flock that it 's good and profitable Humbly to pray unto the Saints and to have recourse to their prayers help and aid And then to reinforce the Obligation of it it denounces an Anathema against all those who shall find fault with it or refuse to practise it so that now whosoever shall be so hardy as to think and teach the contrary to say that either it ought not to be done or that it 's a foolish thing to do it that the practice is little less then Idolatry repugnant to the Glory of God as sole Governour of the World and highly injurious to the Honour of Christ as the only Mediator betwixt God and Man does in the judgment of that Church think impiously and if the Popes Power as well as his Infallibility does not fail him he most be Curs'd and Damn'd for it But for once not to be frighted with his vain Thunder I shall proceed in due place by Gods assistance to prove all the foregoing particulars against it when I have given you yet a fuller description of it First then 1. The least and most excusable thing in this Doctrine and practice is to pray to Saints to pray for them Thus much is not only confest by them but made the pretence to bring off this Doctrine without the charge of Idolatry and Creature Worship We do no more in praying to Saints departed say they then one living Christian does to another when he sayes pray Sir pray for me or remember me in your prayers But was this indeed the true meaning of such Devotions it 's so far from being any justification of them that the Apologly it self is sinful and admitting the excuse the practice no less to be condemned For When they Pray to Saints departed to pray for them those Saints do either hear their prayers and become acquainted with their desires or they do not If they do hear all those prayers that are put up to them at the same time by innumerable persons and that in far distant places what 's this but to ascribe to them that ubiquity and omnipresence that 's solely peculiarly and incommunicably in God If they do not then it 's very absurd and ridiculous and a great abuse of that reason God hath given men for other
the Resurrection from their own foolish and erroneous Customs in effect telling them that their usage of Baptizing the living for the dead was vain and impertinent if there were no Resurection For if the Dead rise not at all to what end were these Funeral Solemnities Why was there vicarium tale Baptisma as Tertullian calls it the manner whereof is thus described by Epiphanâ—us When any Catechumenist dyed some living person being placed under the bed they came to the deceased party and asked him whither he would be Baptised the Party under the bed answered that he would whereupon they immediately Baptized him for the dead a silly superstitious Action Yet from this Topick St. Paul proves a Resurrection to them as he did once the existence of the true God from an inscription on an Altar in Athens to one that was unknown but Bellarmine would perswade us that by this washing they intended to afford their Friends some relief in Purgatory and he might with as much reason have told us that the Sea burns IV. The Fourth place is that of St. Matthew 5. 25. Agreewith thine adversary quickely whilst thou art in the way with him leâ—t at any time the adversary deliver thee to the Judge and the Judge deliver thee to the Officer and thou be cast into prison verily I say unto thee thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing Now if the Cardinal may be credited Purgatory is this Prison and the Prisoner shut up therein is in a condition to pay the uttermost farthing by the help of Prayers Masses and the Pope's Indulgence Whereas all this is an Allegory whereby we are taught to reconcile our selves to God the great Judge of Heaven and Earth by leading a Godly Righteous and Sober life whilst we are in the Way or on this side the Grave for if we neglect our repentance and amendment of life in this our day before the night approaches wherein no man can work we run the hazard of being cast into a prison out of which there is no Redemption for the Text sayes We shall by no means come out thence till we have paid the uttermost farthing which will be never because we shall never be able to discharge this Debt We are infinitely beholding to the goodness and mercy of God who hath appointed his only begotten Son to be our Surety and to deliver us out of this Prison how justly then may the Saviour of the World be angry with Papists for pretending to cast simple people into I know not what Prison and to torture them with painted Fires in spight of that Redemption which he hath made for the whole World V. The Fifth place is that of Mat. 5. 22. Whosoever is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in danger of the Judgment and whosoever shall say to his Brother Raca shall be in danger of the Council but whosoever shall say thou Fool shalt be in danger of Hell Fire The last onely of these sins Bellarmine observes shall be punished with Hell Fire consequently after this life the punishment of lesser sins will be in Purgatory But this is no true inference because after this life there will be no distinction of Courts of Justice as there was among the Jews in our Saviours time then all Judicature shall appertain to Christs and his Apostles therefore this Text cannot be rightly understood without considering the words before and after it Now our Saviour in this Chapter was about to interpret the Law of Moses which the Jews thought they had fulfilled when they had not transgressed the Grammatical sense thereof this made them believe that the Sixth Commandment was not broken but by killing a Man nor the Seventh but actually committing Adultery or Fornication Whereas our Saviour forbids the inward Anger of a Man against his Brother without a cause the punishment whereof at the Day of Judgement shall be Hell Fire How Purgatory then should be maintained from these words I cannot imagine unless the Papists can make it out that as the Jews had divers Temporal Courts of Justice so God Almighty will have three distinct Courts of Justice hereafter and will inflict different punishments for Sin VI. The Sixth place is Luk 16. 9. Make ye friends of the unrighteous Mammon that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations Invocation of Saints the Papists say may be proved from this Text but I cannot see upon what grounds We are advised to make the Poor our Friends by Charity and by giving them some of our Riches that we may have in this life the benefit of their Prayers and thereby make God himself our Debtour for he that giveth to the Poor lendeth to the Lord. Lastly the Champions for Popery alledge for Purgatory 1 Pet. â— 19. 20. By which also he went and preached to the Spirits in prison by which they understand the descent of Christ into purgatory to loose some Souls there from their Torments But en ho by which relates to Pneumati Spirit that is set down just before it by which Spirit in Noah who is called a Preacher of Righteousness Christ Jesus is said to preach to the Generation of Men immediately before the Floud whose Souls are now shut up in Hell for their Disobedience For this Preaching was not performed by an immediate act of the Son of God as if he personally had appeared on Earth and actually Preached to the Old World but he did it by the ministry of a Prophet For to doe any thing by another that is not able to perform it without him as much demonstrates the existence of the principal cause as if he did it of himself without any interveening instrument But if purgatory be intended in these words we must be mightily mistaken in our conceptions about a future state then the dayes that follow after Death do afford opportunities of obtaining a better Life then may Men rise from a life of torments to a life of joy whereas the Angels had one Instant either to stand or fall eternally what that instant was to them that this Life is to us for after death immediately follows Judgment the Soul at its departure from the body knows it's doom and what it must trust to for ever The Schoolmen labour all they can to destroy the true Belief of Christians in this matter and have the face to propose it as a matter of Faith that Christ delivered the Souls of the Saints from the very suburbs of Hell which they call Limbus of the Fathers It is pity but the wits of these Men had been better imployed then in building such Castles in the Air or in filling Mens thoughts with imaginary Ideas of strange places in the other World that have no foundation in Scripture which is our surest guide against all such Notional wandrings opens our eyes to perceive the reality of things and clears the brain not only from Darkness but from falsâ—
and useless Light especially the Ignis fatuus of Purgatory whicâ— serves onely to mislead Men out of the way and so lose them iâ— the bogs or woods of perpetual errour which teaches us to believâ— quite otherwise then the Papists do for such as these are the instructions of the Holy Spirit John 5. 24. Verily verily I say unto you he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hatâ— everlasting life he shall not come into condemnation but is passâ—â— from death to life Mat. 18. 8. Wherefore if thy hand or thy fâ—â—â— offend thee cut them off and cast them from thee it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed rather then having two hands and two feet to be cast into everlasting fire Mat. 19 29. And every one that hath forsaken houses or Brethren or Sisters or Father or Mother or Wife or Children or Lands for my names sake shall receive an hundred fold and shall inherit everlasting life Mat. 25. 46. And these shall go into everlasting punishment but the righteous into life everlasting In the sixteenth Chapter of St. Luk's Gospel from the nineteenth to the one and thirtieth Verse we read how the Rich Man was cast into Torments and the Poor Man lodged in Abraham's Bosome Between the places of both these Men there was Mega chasma a Wide Gulph never to be passed Insomuch that Dives did dispair of any relief out of his misery when the gift of a drop of Water to cool his tongue would not be granted him If we can assent to what the Papists say they have paved a large Caus-way over this wide Gulf and have opened a very easie passage from a life of torments to that of eternal happiness For by vertue of some prayers oblations and indulgences they have made the way broad to Heaven and narrow to Hell a Man that hath Money in his pocket cannot be damned and a Camel may assoon pass through the eye of a nedle as a poor man be saved But granting that the written word of God hath nothing of Purgatory in it the Romanists will tell you that Tradition will defend them in the belief thereof which word Tradition they are wont to alledge to give a colour to most of their present innovations Wherefore in the second place I am to shew how they are mistaken in this case of Tradition also and to declare for what reasons the Fiction of Purgatory was first set on foot The Traditions we receive as good and authentick are the Doctrines which we now read in the holy Scriptures but I have proved Purgatory to be none of these Therefore those of the Romish Perswasion must mean some other Tradition that is not to be found written in the word of God But here we ought to observe that the Scripture in this case aswell as in all others is the only rule of Faith therefore Traditions Councils and Fathers are onely to be used as helps to understand the Scripture better but not to be entertained as any rule of Faith in which case we are bound to be of the Apostle's mind If I or an Angel from Heaven preach any other doctrine then that which we have delivered let him be accursed For this reason we cannot receive those Doctrines for truth which the Church of Rome presses upon our Belief upon the account of Tradition Especially when we consider with what strategems of force and fraud this Church hath laboured to keep the People in ignorance for the sake of her New Doctrines that they may be swallowed the more glibly Which is an artifice to enslave Mankind by disabling them either to see or know what she is a doing Whereas if we would keep up the honour and priviledge of Humane nature if we would preserve our Bibles from being sequestred into Hucksters hands if we have any regard to God's pure and undefiled Religion we must resolve against the Novelties of Popery For in the true Religion there is nothing which the reason of Mankind can challenge wherein the judgments of Men may not have so good an account as to receive full and ample satisfaction And to speak the truth I do not understand that there is any Religion farther then that which is owned among Protestants what more is to be found among the Papists is accommodated to serve some by-ends and purposes For this reasons a great Abbot in the Roman Church was wont to say that he did greatly suspect his Religion must needs fail being not built upon so firm a Rock as was supposed because there was so little Ground for many Tenents of it in the word of God I may add that there is as little in the principals of God's Creation or in that which we call Natural Religion If this be so I wonder with what face they can still stand up for Purgatory or imagine such a state in which the Souls of Men are for a time shut up untill they are set at liberty by the Prayers of the Living or a Pope's Indulgence but to justifie themselves in this unpardonable abuse of the Christian Religion they tell us that some Christians in Old Time did make use of Prayers and Commemorations for those who died in the true Faith of our Saviour Jesus Christ Now the question is whither the Supplicants that used this kind of Devotion intended by these means to obtain a pardon for the Criminals that were condemned to this Prison The right understanding of this custome will put an end to the Controversie and who can better inform us of their meaning then they themselves or those that lived in the same Age with them amongst whom may be reckoned Dionysius the Areopagite who treats particularly of the Rites used in their Burials of the Dead this Authour tells us that the Bishop was wont in the midst of the Congregation to make a Prayer of Thanksgiving unto God for his restraining the power of the Devil over Mankind as also for his mercifull admittance of sincere Penitents into his Grace and Favour And farther prayes that God would place them in the Land of the Living seat them in Abraham's Bosome where now they rest from their Labours here they may be received into a place of Light Peace and Joy everlasting this was the end of their Prayers for those that Rest in the Lord. Now leâ—t by mistake we should infer from hence as some have done that the Souls of good Men departed this life are not yet in Paradise but remain for some time in a condition of darkness loss and pain there to be prepared for Heaven by certain Purgations and thence to be discharged by the satisfactions and prayers of the Living the same excellent writer hath mentioned only two divisions of the Dead of those that have lived well and of those that have lived ill whereas the upholders of Purgatory have lodged them in three distinct Apartments But the Primitive Church know but two places of entertainment for the
Church and Christian will be both lost which would be as if a Prince should knock all his Subjects on the Head to keep them quiet 'T is true this would be an effectual way to procure it but by these means he must lose his Kingdom and make himself no Prince into the bargain 'T is no doubt but if Men were ignorant enough they would be quiet but then the consequences of it would be that they would cease to be Men. Lastly They frustrate the effects of real Religion by their Pretences to extraordinary Power and Priviledges that is they pretend to make that lawfull which is unlawfull Bellarmine saith that the Pope may declare vice to be vertue and vertue vice by this practice they attempt to change the reason of things which all Mankind agree to be unalterable By this pretended Power they can turn attrition into contrition that is they can make such a consternation of mind as fell upon Judas when he went and hanged himself to be contrition by the Priest's Absolution they can mâ—ke bodily Pennance to be of equal validity with an inward change of mind and true Repentance they pretend they can produce by I know not what magical force strange spiritual effects by vertue of Holy Water and the Cross they are also much puff't up with a Power they assume of Absolving Men from solemn Oaths and Obligations They boast much of the efficacy of Indulgences for the pardon of sin and for the delivery of Souls out of Purgatory by which Invention they detract from the efficacy of God's Grace as if it were not sufficient to prepare us for and at last to bring us to Heaven unless we pass through this imaginary Purgation after Death by which also they themselves are deceived whilst they couple prayer for the Dead and Purgatory together as if the one did necessarily suppose or imply the other But they doe not for though the sins of the Faithfull be privately and particularily forgiven at the day of Death yet the publick promulgation of their pardon is to come at the day of Judgment Christians then may be allowed to pray for this consummation of Blessedness when the Body shall be reunited to the Soul So we pray as often as we say Thy Kingdom come or come Lord Jesus coâ—â— quickly this is far enough from being a Prayer to deliver them out of Purgatory besides the Roman Church is not able to produce any one Prayer publick or private nor one Indulgence for the delivery of any one Soul out of Purgatory in all the Primitive times or out of their own ancient Missals or Records All these things before mentioned are not to be justified but thus the Papists have endeavoured to spoil the best Religion that ever was made known unto Men. Whereas the Christian Religion as it is professed in the Reformed Church is quite another thing for it doth neither persecute nor hold any principâ—es of faction or disturbance but only those of peace and obedience to the Laws of God and Man if there be any agitatours of Miscief and Treason it is the fault of particular parties and not to be charged upon the Reformed Church which Church holds the Worship of God and all other offices of Religion to be performed in the Vulgar Tongue so that Knowledge may be thereby had and promoted which Knowledge of Religion if any Man doth abuse for the ends of Pride Rebellion or Heresie he doth it at his own peril and God will judge him for it But St. Paul is so far from allowing any Service to God in an unknown Tongue that he calls it a piece of madness 1 Cor. 14. 23. If the whole Church be come together into one place and all speak with divers tongues and there come in the unlearned will not they say that you are mad that is they may justly say so Now a Man would wonder that any society of Men retaining the Name of Christians should zealously press that to be necessary for the Christian Church which St. Paul hath said to be a piece of madness The same Reformed Church owns the free use of the Scriptures both in publick and private calls upon Men as our Savâ—our did to search them for these make the Man of God perfect and do richly furnish him for every good work and by their help we are able to render a reason of the hope that is in us We do declare that the Preachers of the Church ought not to take away the Key of Knowledge from the People as our Saviour charges the Pharisees or as St. Augustine saith They do not command Faith in Men upon peril of Damnation to shew their superioritie but they appear as Officers do direct and give Counsel not with Pride to rule but in Compassion to lead others into the way of Truth and to recover them out of mislakes In short we tell the People that the Scripture is the only rule of their faith that it is full and perspicuous in all matters necessary for good life and practicâ— so that if they use diligence and mind them well they may easily understand them and be satiâ—fied we never demand any implicite Faith from them neiâ—her do we expect that they should resign up their Faculties as others believe blindfold and withâ—ut reason Therefore the Reformed Church is honest in all its dealings doth not deceive Men â—e any wâ—yes of fraud or faâ—shood such as the whole Doctrine of Merit â—s and the Relieving of Souls out of Purgatory by Massâ—s But there is a plâ—ce in the World where Coelum est venale Deusque Heaven and God himself is set to sale The premisses considered we may conclude that the Church of England had good reason to declare in her twenty second Aâ—â—cle that The Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory Pardons Worshipping and Adoration as well of Images as of Reliqâ—es and aâ—so Invâ—â—ation â—â— Saints is a fond thing vainly invented and grounded upon no warraâ—â—â— of Scripture but rather repugnant to the word of God For the whole Scripture is against Purgatory wheâ—ein wâ— reaâ— 1 Joh. 1. 7. That the bloud of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin that the Children of God who die in Câ—â—ist do rest from their labours that as they are absent from the Lord wâ—â—â—e theâ— aâ—â— in the body so when they are absent from the body â—hey aâ—e present with the Lord Joh. 5. 24. They come not into Judgemenâ— but pass from Death to Life The same Doctrine is taughâ— bâ—â—â—â— ancient Fathers of the Chuâ—châ— Tertullian Tertul. lib de patien ch 3. sayes it is an Injury to Christ to maintain that such as be called from hence by him are in a Cyprian de Mortali sect 2. edit Goulart state that should be pitied Thus St. Cyprian affiâ—ms the Servants of God to have Peace and Rest as soon as they are withdrawn from the storms of this lower World And Hilary observes in the Gospel Hilar. in Psal 2. of the