Ep 110. p 840 inferioris notae de plebe Dii inferior vulgar Gods Secondly they held them to be d Austin de C. D. l. 9. c. 3. Dâ—i facti a summo Deo conditi i.e. such as received their beings from the supream God who therefore by the Latines was so often stiled Divum Pater and by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the like And Thirdly they say the Heathens had their e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Julian apud Cyril Alex. l. 4. p. 115. Commission from God and only were his undergovernours and by him placed over Towns and Countreys Fourthly they held the worship due unto them to be a middle and inferior kind of worship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Hierocles that is God must be worshiped with Latria but those inferior Daemons with Dulia and that to worship them f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hieroc p. 10. according to that Dignity they had received from their God and Father was the true worship due unto them and hence they gave this caution in paying homage to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hierocles page the 10. not to give more than was consistent with their Dignity The g This was their Doctrine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodoret in c. 2. ad Coloss Angelicks did not doubt but that those Angels whom they used as Intercessors were the Creatures and Ministers of God nor could they hope to reap advantage by their Intercession had they intended by so doing to confer upon them the worship proper to that jealous God who will not give his glory to an other The Arians had the same apprehensions of Christ Jesus they stile him Dei instrumentum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Ministers his Creature from whence it follows that they could intend to offer up no other worship to him but what was proper to a Creature And hence the Fathers tell us that they performed to the Sacred Trinity honorificentiae imparis officium h Rulg l. 2. ad Monim c. 2. unequal honours and could not be induced to worship Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with worship equal to the Father k 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gregor Nyssen l. 4. Contr. Eunom p. 588.13 And that if any man conceived these words of the Evangelist St. John that all should worship the Son as they worshiped the Father to contain a precept or injunction to give unto the Son a worship equal unto that we give the Father he was exceedingly mistaken 4. The Apostle tells the Church of Corinth that he who in the Temple of an Idol did eat and drink of what was Sacrificed to the Idol did drink the Cup of Devils and was made partaker of the Devils Table and had Communion with them 1 Cor. 10.20 21. and so was guilty of Idolatry to introduce and to confirm this charge he layes down this assertion vers 7. that they who did sit down to eat and drink of what was offerd to the golden Calf were by so doing guilty of Idolatry and upon this account he thus exhorts those persons who endulged themselves in this unlawful practice be ye not Idolaters as were some of them Whence it is clear that St. Paul judged this practice well deserved that imputation and yet it is as certain that they who used it were induced to do so upon this presumption that they conceived the Idol to be nothing 1 Cor. viii 4. x. 19. and therefore not the great Creator and the chiefest good Hence therefore we infer the vanity and falsness of those descriptions of Idolatry which are delivered by the Doctors of the Roman Church who being conscious to themselves and having openly confessed that to the (l) Constans est Theologorum sententia imaginem eodem honore cultu honorari coli quo colitur id cujus est Imago Azor Instit Moral To. 1 l. 9. c. 6. Images of Christ and of the Cross and of the blessed Trinity they give that worship which they stile Latria and which is properly Divine excuse themselves from this enormous guilt by saying that they do not give this worship to them as to God and make the formal reason of Idolatry consist in giving Divine worship to the Creature upon this apprehension that it is a God Idolatry saith (n) L. 2. de Idol c. 1. Gregory of Valence is a Superstition whereby we tender Divine honour to the Creature as to God Latria or that Adoration which agrees to God alone is the most profound prostration and inclination of the will attended with an apprehenssion of God as the first principle last end and chiefest good So Bellarmine (o) L. 2. dâ— Eccâ Triumph c. 12. p. 1503 B. Those words of Christ thou shalt worship the Lord thy God c. must thus be understood Thou shalt not worship false Gods as the Heathens do but that true God who is but one to whom alone theou shalt exhibite Divine worship as to the true God So (p) Manual l. 1. c. 7. qu. 1. Becanus whence he infers they are not to be counted guilty of Idolatry by Invocation and Adoration of Saints departed quia non adorant eos tanquam Deos (q) Just weights chap. 19. The like mistake to say no worse we find in Mr. Thorndike when he asserts that this is requisite to make the Romanists Idolaters Viz. to take the Elements for God That worship may be guilty of Idolatry Prog. 2.5.5 which is not given to a Creature with an intention to make that Creature be esteemed for a God or with an intention to ascribe unto that Creature the excellency which agrees to God alone This proposition may be confirmed by what we have discoursed upon the first being certain that the Eunomians Arians Nestorians did not intend by any worship they performed to Christ to work in any this estimation that he was a God but that above all things they did endeavour to perswade the contrary and they who sate at meat in Idols Temples and by partaking of things Sacrificed to them were guilty of Spiritual whoredom or Idolatry Believed themselves and taught to others this assertion that an Idol was nothing in the world And it is apparent also that according to this principle the holy Martyrs might have worshiped with all kinds of honour not only Emperors and Kings but even ther Prince of Devils without the imputation of Idolatry Provided they did not inwardly intend by any act of worship to procure unto them the estimation of a Deity 4. They who resort unto the Hag and the (r) Peccant in primum preceptum qui somniss auguriis caecerisque vanissmais is rebus fridem dem habent Catech Rom part 3. c. 1. ss 7. Magician the Sorcerer and Wizard do not believe much less endavour to work this estimation in the hearts of others that they are truly God And yet the Chuch of Rome condemns them who thinking they can do what they
introduced Now who knows not that the substance of Bread is not a proper object of Latria and it that Christ God-man was properly contained in the Sacrament there could be no suspition of Idolatry in the adoration of it What I have thus discoursed I judge sufficient to convince the Reader that this was not the practice of the Ancient Church What T. G. offers to the contrary is §. 6. that St. Basil saith the words of invocation when the Eucharistical Bread was shewed T G. p. 222 223. are Apostoliâ—al Tradition Ergo the Host was worshiped with Latria St. Austins Mother assisted at the Altar from whence she knew the Holy Victim was disp aced Ergo the Host was Worshiped with Latria Optatus calls the Altar the Seat of the Body of our Lord. Ergo the Host was Worshiped with â—atria He might have added that Protestant do call the Sacrament the Blood and Body of our Lord they do uncover and shew it to the people they therefore do adore it with Latria These are the wretched Sophisms by which this universal practice is confirmed and they prove only this That the abettors of them do not renounce their sence and reason only when they do believe this Doctrine but also when they discourse on this unhappy Subject Thus when T. G. proceeds to tell us p. 224. That the practice of the Church was so notorious in this point of the Adoration of the Eucharist that the Heathens because they knew that the Christians made use of Bread and Wine in the Mysteries objected to them that they Worshiped Ceres and Bacchus Nothing is so notorious as is the weakness of this Inference For if this argument be valid the Heathens thought that Christians Worshiped Ceres and Bacchus because they used Bread and Wine in their Mysteries therefore all Christians Worshiped what seemed to be Bread and Wine this must be also valid the Heathens thought that the Jews did Worship Saturn because they met on Saturday August conâ—a Faust Mamich l. 20. c. 13. as the same Austin in the same place informs us therefore all Jews Worshiped Saturday 2. St. Austin saith and he himself confesseth that the Heathens thus conceived not because they Worshiped the likeness of Bread and Wine but because they used Bread and Wine in their Mysteries the bare use therefore not the Worship of these things was that which gave the rise to this absurd imagination as St. Austin deems it Like to this stuff is that of Chrysestom viz. That the whole order of heavenly Powers lift up their voice T G. p. 224. and the place round about the Altar is filled in honour of him that lyeth upon it And that of Nazianzen p. 222. affirming That Gorgonia went with Faith to the Altar and with a loud voice besought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 him that was honoured upon it For who knows not that Christ is honoured at the Holy Table when by the invocation of his Holy name the Sacrament of his true Body and Blood is Consecrated and to his Glory is distributed to all the Faithfull who knows not that the honour done to that which represents and is the true memorial of our Blessed Lord is Honour done to him And therefore these expressions only signifie that Holy Angels and Good Christians do honour the memorials of Christs Body and this we Protestants do as truly but more safely then the Church of Rome witness the preparations made before we do receive them and the Reverence we use when we receive them and witness lastly our confession Eucharistiam ut signum utile divinitus institutum venerandam confitemur saith Albertinus And that Nazianzen could intend no more is clear from what he doth immediately subjoyn viz. In Epitaph Gorgon p. 187 That if his Sister could lay hold of any of the Antitypes of our Lords Blood and Body she presently bedewed them with her Tears What therefore lay upon the Altar was only the Antitype of Christs true Body This also was the mind of Chrysostom for he declares Epistol ad Caefar Monach. That before the Bread is Sanctified we name it Bread but the Divine Grace Sanctifying it by the means of the Priest it is sâ—eâ—d from the name of Bread and is esteemed worthy to be called the Lords Body although the nature of Bread remaineth in it To the words of Chrysostom p. 224. cited from Hom. 24. in Epist ad Corinth I answer That Chrysostom doth here exhort us to Worship Christs Body which we do he also saith we see this Body on the Altar Nay elsewhere he adds * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aâ— Pop. Antâ—oc Hom. 15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. Hom. 24 Vide Albert l. 2. at Sacr. Euch. p. 535 536. we see it slain and jugulated d In Mat. Hom. 82. And when the Hereticks do ask whence it is evident that Christ was Crucified we stop their mouths saith he by the consideration of these Mysteries for if Christ be not â—ead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what do these Symbols mean Christs Body therefore is seen upon the Altar not as to its substance for there according to the Roman Doctors its being is invisible but as to that Sacrament which represents his Body this then must be the mind of Chrysostom that Body which is really in Heaven and in the Altar is seen slain and jugulated in effigie do you adore Hitherto we have complained only of the want of reason in the citations following we have just reason to suspect his want of Conscience For with what Conscience could he offer this passage of f Theodoret in confirmation of this practise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dial. 2 p. 84.85 viz. The mystical symbols * Those words T. G. leaves out do not receed from their nature for they abide in their proper substance figure and from and may be seen and touched as they were before but they are understood to be what they are made and are believed and adored as being the things they are believed for can that be a Demonstration of this practise which is a most convincing demonstration that the supposition upon which the Romanist doth build this practise is absurd and false And that the Adoration of the Host would be the Adoration of what continues Bâ—ead as certainly as the humanity of Christ continues to retain its nature and its proper substance had not T. G. sufficient reason to leave our these words which are so clear a Condemnation of the Doctrine of Transubstantiation and consequently of the Adoration of the Host that their great Doctors are even forced to say that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 substance Theodoret doth understand no substance out only accidents which are the opposite to substance And that by substance and nature he meaneth form and figure though in this very place he makes a clear distinction of substance both from form and figure and consequently that he grants unto the Heretick that
see and hear us every where And Chrysostom upon the same Expression finds fault with those that pray aloud and bids us Imitate the Hymnes and Melodies of holy Angels who pray with us although we do not hear them for saith he (k) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Tom. 2. Homil. in Matt. 19. pag. 137. thou dost not pray to Man but to God omnipresent to him that hears before thou speakest to him that understandeth what the Mind doth not utter 4. Because he only can Answer our Petitions and from him only can we obtain what we desire * Precantes sumus proomnibus Imperatoribus vitam illis prolixam imperium securum domun tutam populum probum orbem quietum quaecunque hominis Caesaris vota sunt Haec ab alio orare non possum quam à quo me scio consequnturum quoniam ipse est qui SOLVS praestat ego sum cui impetrare debetur famulus ejus qui eum Solum observo Tertul. Apol. c. 30. Sect. 2 3. We beg for all our Emperors long life safe Empire valiant Armies a faithful Senate an honest People and a quiet World and whatsoever any man or Emperor could wish So Tertullian And then he adds These things I may not pray for from any other but from him of whom I know I shall obtain them because both it is he who alone is able to give and I am be to whom it appertaineth to obtain that which is requested being his servant who observe him alone From all which sayings it is evident these antient Fathers did not only think as we now do that all our Intercessions should be made to God but also that they did it for these very Reasons we alledg viz. that he alone is omnipresent that he alone discerns the secrets of the Heart that he alone is able to confer the Blessings which we want and pray for 2 The Fathers do affirm that by addressing a petition to a Martyr Saint or Angel we become guilty of distraction from God and of deserting our Lord Jesus Christ (l) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Hist Eccl. l. 4. c. 15. pag. 135. We cannot be induced saith the Church of Smyrna to forsake Christ or worship any other Person where first it well deserveth to be noted that what is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in the antient Interpreter of the Acts of Polycarp Alteri cuiquam Orationis precem impendere we cannot pray to any other Act. Polyc in Append Ignat Usser p. 27. And what the Jews objected that if the Christians could obtain the Martyrs body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deserting Christ they would begin to worship him is by the Metaphrast thus rendred huic fundenda esset oratio singulorum they would all pray unto him Now seeing this Translation was of such credit in the Western Church that it was read in their assemblies it is most certain that Church did antiently conceive 1. that the Church of Smyrna did deny that any genuine Christian would pray to any Saint departed 2. That to put up a petition to a Martyr was to renounce their Saviour And 3. that to pray to and afford religious worship to a Martyr was the same And 4. that we must only put up our petitions to the Son of God because he only must be worshipped Secondly observe the reason of this assertion of the Church of Smyrna We cannot worship any other delivered in these words For him being the Son of God we worship but the Martyrs as the Disciples and followers of the Lord we highly love for their exceeding great affection to their own King and Master The Church of Rome could have informed them of a better Reason why they should affect them viz. as being Intercessors and Mediators for and Patrons of the Christian Church and the Procurers of all spiritual Blessings for them She could have told them it was ignorantly done to comprehend that Service vvhich was due to the deceased Martyrs in this one expression We love them worthily For if the Veneration and Worship of the Saints departed nay the Worship of their very Ashes hath been the constant Custom of the whole Church of God and if the Invocation of them be that which Holy Scripture teacheth and the Apostles have delivered and which the Church of God hath alwaies practised as is delivered in the * Catechism of the Church of Rome Part. 3. c. 2. Sect. 8. it may be well admired that the Church of Smyrna which daily practised say they this veneration and invocation of the holy Martyrs should without distinction appropriate all worship and adoration to the Son of God in opposition to the Martyrs and comprehend the Service they performed to the blessed Martyrs in a word which doth not in the least import the Veneration which they daily practised 2. Observe the Reason vvhich is given by the Church of Smyrna why they could not worship any other viz. Because they worshipped the Son of God if any worship had been then paid to Martyrs or any other Saints departed by the Church of Christ what could have been more stupid than this Way of reasoning Now that this Doctrine is introduced into the Church of Rome we hear them speaking thus †Tantum abest ut Sanctis invocandis Dei gloria minuacur ut eo maximè augeatur Cat. Rom. part 3. c. 2. Sect. 11. We worship Saints and Martyrs in honour of the Son of God So far do they esteem that honour which they pay to him from being any prejudice unto the Worship of those blessed Spirits 3. Observe the Argument which the Jews urged to move the Proconsul to retain the body viz. That if the Christians could obtain it it might be feared they would leave Christ and worship Polycarp The Jews could not be ignorant of what the Christians practised in this case by reason of those numerous Apostates who daily left the Church and of that liberty they had to come to their Assemblies Had then the Christians worshipped other Martyrs with Christ and had they professed to do it for his sake and honour could this have been objected by the Jews with any sense and reason that they would quit Jesus Christ that they might worship Polycarp Must they not rather have objected that with Christ they would worship Polycarp which since they did not we may well suspect the practice of the Church gave them no reason so to do Athanasius discoursing upon these words of Jacob The Angel that delivered me from all evil defend the Lads which by the Arians were urged to the same purpose as they are used by Roman Catholicks viz. to prove that Invocation was not so proper to God but that it might be used to Creatures and therefore that it was no evidence that Christ was God declares that Jacob did not speak of a created Angel 1. Because he joyns the Angel with God and saith * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
A DISCOURSE CONCERNING The Idolatry OF THE CHURCH of ROME WHEREIN That CHARGE is Justified AND The Pretended Refutation of Dr. STILLINGFLEET's Discourse is Answered By DANIEL WHITBY D. D. Mirum videtur quare in uno articulo qui non est principalis artriculus fidei debeat talis intellectus asseri propter quem fides pate at contemptui omnium sequentium rationem Scotus in 4 sent dist 11. q. 3. lit B. LONDON Printed for Tho. Basset at the George near St. Dunstans Church in Fleetstreet and Ja. Magnes near the Piazza in Covent Garden 1674. TO THE Most Reverend Father in God GILBERT LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY May it please your Grace IT is the Custom of the Adversaries of our Church to thrust out their Errors into the World under some great name that by the Protection of some honorable Person to whom they Dedicate their Books they may render them more plausible in the Eye of the World and add greater weight and Authority to their gross Falshoods My Lord We live in such an age in which Truth stands in greater need of a Patron than Falshood it self and though this little poor Treatise be not worthy to bear your great name in the front yet the Truth I here defend will I doubt not be owned and supported by your Grace whose great design in this World is to support the Church of England 'T is the same Faith and the same Doctrin I here deliver which your Glorious Predecessors in both your Sees of Canterbury and London Cranmer and Ridley owned and asserted even unto Blood 'T is a defence of that great learned man who has made it his business now for some years to defend the Writings of the renowned Archbishop Laud for whose memory and writings you have often expressed so great Veneration These considetions are enough alone to prove the fitness of this address But besides these your Grace may justly challenge the labours of all your own Vniversity You have obliged them to that degree that the Gifts of half their Benefactors amassed into one summe would scarce equal your famous Theatre And as they fail not to give God thanks for so great a Patron at the times of publick solemnity so am I under the same Obligation for that support you bestowed on me for some years together whilest I was a member of Trinity Colledge and before I had the happiness and honor to be related to my Lord of Sarum Whosoever knows this will certainly excuse my boldness and if to make this address be impudence yet not to have done it would have been ingratitude God preserve your Grace for the Chruches sake I am Your Graces humbly devoted Servant D. W. TO THE READER Courteous Reader I Think my self obliged to give thee an account 1. Why I undertake to answer this Discourse And 2. Why having undertaken to return an Answer to it I have omitted part the first of which the true account is briefly this since the Printers would not undertake the Printing of the whole before the Term expired I was contented do defer that part which I conceived to be least material to the Term ensuing That which first moved me to frame this Answer to T. G. was this having perused this Author and having found him laying the most scandalous accusations and imputations of Sophistry and Legerdemain Falshood and Contradiction to the Doctors charge I knew not how to think that any person who professed Christianity or valued either his credit or his cause should lay such imputations upon others and be himself the person Guilty Nor yet could I be easily perswaded that any person in so good a cause as ours in which Authorities and Arguments do press for an admittance and Men of ordinary Capacities must be abundantly supplied with them much less that the incomparable Dr. Stilling fleer that prodigy of Ingenuity and Learning should betake himself to such dishonourable Arts. Besides I knew that his Integrity and sense of honour was so great that he must scorn such sordid dealing and that it was his business to detect the Frauds and religious Cheates of Rome and therefore I presumed he would not imitate her when he did confute her Wherefore my curiosity engaged me to examine all that was devised to blast his Credit and having found it to be written in the old Roman Style and to contain nothing but the pure quintessence of Calumny I thought it charity to ease the Doctor and to declare unto the World what was the fruit of this inquiry And should this work be so unhappy which I hope it will not as to rob the World of the Ingenious and Triumphant Labors af the Learned Dr. yet I have two things to apologize 1. That the Dr. hath given us the greatest evidence that he can write most admirable Books upon the meanest Subjects and in answer to the most trifling and inconsiderable Scriblers so that what ever Adversarie he vouchsafes to answer he almost equally obligeth and instructeth all that read him but most of all his adversary whose Name he rescues from obscurity whilst he vouchsafes to mention it 2. That with I have performed will give us this advantage to the common cause viz. That through the strength and goodness of it a little inconsiderable David may worst the best Goliah of the Roman Church In prosecution of this subject I have set down the Doctrine of the Church of Rome not from the sayings of her private Doctors but from her Councils Catechisms and Authentick Liturgies that so I might obstruct all possibility of pleading that I do falsly represent her Tenets But though I use this method I do not think it either sophistical or useless to represent unto the World what are the Doctrines and Practices which have so far obtained in the Church of Rome as to be Doctrines and Practises of no small Credit Authority amongst them they being held and defended by their most able Writers and taught and practised with as much freedome in the Church of Rome as are the contrary Doctrines And to omit those many instances which do not so immediately concern the present Controversy It is a very common and prevayling Doctrine among the Doctors of the Church of Rome that the blessed Virgin is the Mother of Mercy not only by vertue of her intercession but by way of distribution and of Dispensation and that Christ having reserved the Kingdom of Justice to himself hath granted the Kingdom of mercy to his Mother and that he hath given to her what Assuerus promised to Queen Hester viz. The half of his Dominions or his Kingly Office This Doctrine is delivered by Thomas Bonaventure Gerson Gabriel Biel Antoninus Bernardinus Gorrhan Holcoth Rutilius Benzonius Blasius Viegas Osorius Paulus Cararia and many others whose words are cited by Dr. * From p. 356. to p. 363. White * p. 321.323.398.399 p 478.481 p. 480. p. 486. Crakanthorp and Bishop Usher in his Answer to the Jesuits challenge
on the diseased Christians if then in all those Miracles we cannot find one instance which was not made apparent to the senses of mankind what reason have we to esteem this so Besides is not a Miracle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a sign sure I am the Scripture often calls it so and is not every sign declared by St. * Signum est res praeter speciem quam ingerit sensibus aliud aliquid ex se faciens in cogitationem venire De Doctrina Christiana l. 2. c. 1. Austin to be something sensible whereby we do perceive what is not sensible what therefore is no object of the sence can be no sign or Miracle Secondly we cannot possibly obtain a greater evidence that any Revelation is Divine than is the evidence of sence whence it doth follow that we can have no reason to believe a Revelation more than we do our sences as T. G. asserts for all the certainty we have of any object of our Faith depends on our assurance that the deliverers of it were infallibly assisted by the Divine Wisdom in that delivery and is not this attested by the Miracles they wrought the Prophesies they delivered the Doctrine they taught and that by sence should any of them be questioned must not we recur unto the sences of the Primitive Christians to confirm them and must they not then be the ultimate foundation of our Faith and our Traditions must we not be surer of the proof than of the thing proved And consequently of the evidence of sense than that of Faith which deriveth from it if not why Secondly doth our Lord pronounce them rather Blessed who believe and have not seen 20 Joh. 29 than Thomas who first saw and felt and then believed is it not because they do it upon lesser though sufficient evidence and so their Faith is more illustrious and praise worthy Thirdly should it be otherwise how cometh it to pass that men are equally assured of what equally they see but have not the like fulness of perswasion in what they believe That being once assured of the objects of sence they can admit of no greater certainty whereas after all our boasts of a Plerophory of Faith we have still need to strive and labour to encrease it Since then the certainty of Faith is proved inferior to that of sence It is not possible we should have greater reason to believe a Revelation or any matter of our Faith than to believe our sences as T. G. suggests hence also it doth follow that we can have no greater reason to believe that these four words this is my body are contained in Scripture or that they do assert the Sacrament to be Christs Body than that assurance which the sences of all Christians do afford us that it remaineth Bread And Thirdly hence it follows that we can have no greater reason to profess the Christian Faith than we have to reject the Figment of Transubstantiation Answer 3. As for that vain pretence that Christ hath said this is his Body and therefore we stand bound to think that he doth work a Miracle to make it so although it be against the sence and reason of mankind that he should do it This will oblige us also to believe that by some other like prodigious Miracle before his Incarnation he was Transubstantiated into the Rock which ministred water to the Jews during their Travels in the Wilderness for of that it is expresly said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 10.4 or that Rock was Christ 2. This will oblige us to believe that Christ hath neither Flesh nor Blood because the Scripture doth assure us that Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 15.50 which yet Christ Jesus doth inherit We unbelieving Protestants perhaps might think it strange that Christ should have neither Flesh nor Blood yet the Sacrament should be his very Flesh and Blood but as for you you know the danger of not believing God more than your sences and your reasons and therefore this and many thousand contradictions of like nature can be no reason why you should not embrace the Letter 3. This will oblige us to be Anthropomorphites and to confess that all the arguments which have been urged against that Tenet by the Church of Christ are vain and ineffectual for Scripture hath not only said that man was made after the likeness and similitude of God but also doth in very many places attribute unto him the parts and members of an humane body what then will you oppose against them sence and reason T. G. will give this answer for them that they well know the danger of not believing Holy Scripture more than their sences or their reason Will you confute them by a Text of Scripture which seems to contradict their Doctrine alas that which is often stiled Bread must not be thought to be so because Christ hath once said it is his body and can we be so vain as to imagine that one ambiguous passage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may be rendred God makes or searcheth God loves or seeks the Spirit 4 Joh. 24. should carry it against so many which more expresly do ascribe unto him the members of an humane body or shall we fly unto Tradition alas is it not that which is derived from the sences of those men which in the matter of Transubstantiation have been all constantly deceived and if their hearing be a sufficient ground of Faith against the Doctrine of the Anthropomorphites must not their eyes and tast and smell and feeling be as cogent against the Doctrine of Transubstantiation Fourthly This must oblige us to believe what is the greatest Blasphemy viz. That Christ by all the Miracles he wrought among them gave no sufficient motive to the Jews to own him for the true Messiah for all his Miracles were only motives to believe that Law should be abolished which God hath often said should last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or for ever Doth nor he tell them that the things he had revealed belonged to them and to their Children for ever Deut. 29.29 Exod. 12.17 that they might do all the things of this Law Doth not he call the Passover an everlasting Statute Hath not he said the Law of their first fruits shall be a Statute for ever throughout their Generations 23 Lev. 14 And if you answer that this word Gnolam doth not alwayes signifie an infinite duration but is sometimes used for such duration as admits a period and so must not be urged against so great conviction of their sence and reason Will not this answer justifie the Protestants when they produce so many instances to shew that when a thing in Scripture is stiled this or that the meaning only is that it doth signifie what it is said to be for to omit those passages so often cited 40 Gen. 12. 41 Gen. 26. 7 Dan. 38. 8 Luk. 11. 13 Mat. 38 39.
c. 12. Run through all the words of holy Prayers and you will be able to find nothing which is not included in the Lords Prayer in this both Protestants and Roman Catholicks agree Hence therefore I assume if when we pray for any thing contained in this Prayer we are enjoyned to pray to God then all our acceptable Prayers must be directed to him and whensoever we do pray for any blessing we must call upon him besides Our Father doth belong to every Petition no other person being mentioned in this Prayer so that the sense runs thus Our Father c. let thy Kingdome come Our Father let thy will be done c. And then the import of this injunction will be this when you pray for the advancement of Gods Glory or the promotion of his Kingdom or the performance of his Will when you solicite for any Temporal blessing or for the pardon of your Sin or lastly for the prevention of any Evil or Temptation of what kind soever when you desire any of these mercies for your selves or others pray to your Heavenly Father for them 3. None of these blessings must be asked of him to whom the Kingdom Power and Glory doth not of right belong For this is added as the cause or motive of making these addresses to God and where the motive or cause is wanting the effect must cease Now to God only the Kingdome Power and Glory doth agree Jude 25. We therefore must address our Prayers to him only for the obtaining of these blessings And least you should object that this Argument excludes the third and second persons of the Sacred Trinity let it be noted that all the Schoolmen do affirm That the word Father in this Prayer must not be taken personally but essentially and so excludeth not the other Persons of the Trinity but those things only which have not the same nature with them 2. Prayer offered up in any time or place to an invisible and for any thing we know a Being absent from us as far as Earth from Heaven doth ascribe unto that Being the knowledge of the secrets of the heart now to worship any Being whether Saint or Angel with such a kind of worship which doth ascribe unto it the knowledge of the desires and secrets of the heart both where and whensoever they are conceived or uttered is to ascribe unto them by way of worship what is not due to Saints or Angels but alone to God as hath been proved already and may be further thus confirmed 1. If Saints departed were acquainted with the desires of our hearts why did Elijah speak unto Elisha thus 2 Kings 2.9 Ask what thou wilst before I am taken from thee The Scripture doth affirm that he was taken up into the Heavens and therefore did behold the face of God And Roman Catholicks themselves deny that he was held in Limbo as they imagine other Prophets were being in Heaven his love unto Elisha and the Church of God was not diminished but enlarged and therefore upon that account he had a stronger reason to ask what he desired then before Besides the Prophet being now with God in Heaven his Prayers would more effectually prevail for any Blessing for his Friend and therefore he had greater reason to have said had he believed this Doctrine of the Church of Rome Ask what thou wilst when I am taken from thee And therefore we have reason to presume that he did not believe this Doctrine but rather thought that his departure would render all Elijah's future wishes and add resses to him vain and ineffectual 2. From that known passage of Isaiah Abraham nescivit nos Israel ignoravit nos St. Augustine thus concludes (o) Si tanti Patriarchae quid erga populum ex his procreatum ageretur ignoraverunt quibus Deo credentibus populus ipse ex corum stirpe promissus est quomodo mortui suorum rebus atque actubus cognoscendis adjuvandisque miscentur ibi ergo sunt spiritus defunctorum ubi non vident quaecunque aguntur aut eveniunt in ista vita hominibus De curâ pro mortuis c. 13. If such great Patriarchs were ignorant of what was done towards the people that proceeded from their Loins how should the dead be conversant in knowing or helping of their friends in what they do There therefore are the Spirits of dead persons where they do not see what things are done or happen to men in this life 2. I reason thus this practice doth ascribe unto the objects of our Prayer such knowledge of the heart and such a cognisance of all petitions presented to them at all times and in all places of the world which we have proved to agree to God alone or such a presence in all places which is proper to him and therefore it ascribeth to them the honor due to God alone 2. If Saints departed do know the minds and inward thoughts of those who put up their petitions to them they have this knowledge either from Revelation or from the beatifick Vision but they have no such knowledge either from Revelation or from the Beatifick Vision Ergo. And 1. God doth not ordinarily reveal unto them the knowledge of the hearts of their petitioners For if they do not want this Revelation God who doth nothing vainly must not be supposed to impart it But these blessed Spirits do not want it for did they need this Revelation to perceive our minds saith Bellarmine the Church would not so confidently say to all the Saints Votis precamur cordium audite preces supplicum Brev. in Com. Apost p. 2. pray for me much less we offer to you the desires of our hearts but sometimes would desire God thus to reveal our prayers and to acquaint them with the desires of our hearts 2. If God thus reveal the Prayers of the Petitioner to the deceased Saints what reason can be given saith the forementioned Author why all the holy Patriarchs and Prophets were not invoked by the Church of Israel before our Saviours advent and he had reason to make this enquiry For 1. It is as easie to Almighty God to make this Revelation to the souls in Limbo that Papal prison of the Antient Patriarchs and holy Prophets as to the souls in Heaven nor have we one example or declaration that what God is supposed now to do he was not willing to do then 2. Certain it is the charity of those departed Patriarchs and Prophets towards their relatives and friends and the whole Church of God must be exceedingly advanced by their change they must be more the friends of God and their petitions must be more prevailing then whilst they did continue in the flesh Wherefore the Jews had as good reason to invoke these Patriarchs and Prophets as hath the Romanist to call upon the Christian Martyrs And God had equal reason to declare this was the duty of the Jew and to reveal their Supplications to the Patriarchs as to
conversing with God †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bosil Tom. 1. Orat. in Jusiti Martyr p. 318. Prayer is a request of some good thing which is made by pious men to God saith Basil whence elsewhere he asserts that Prayer is not directed unto man but God ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Nyss de Orat. Dom. or 2. p. 724. D. Chrysost in Gen. Hom. 30. Prayer is a conference with God saith Nyssen and a request of good things which is offered with supplication unto God Prayer is a Colloquy with God and every one that prays discourseth with God so St. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Tom. 4. p. 139. Chrysostome Hence on that expression of St. Paul with all that call upon the name of the Lord he notes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that St. Paul doth not say that call on this or that i.e. of any thing but Christ and on these words Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus he comments thus i.e. do all things praying unto him for help and before all thy business making thy supplication to him or he saith thus say and do all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to or according to God and introduce not Angels But T. G. hath some Arguments to prove that Saints and Angels have the knowledge of our hearts and actions viz. It is said Luke 15.7 Object T. G. p. 419. There shall be joy in Heaven and v. 10. There shall be joy before the Angels of God upon one sinner that doth penance And the Saints in Heaven no doubt rejoyce as much at the conversion of a sinner as the Angels do Not only the Angels of God Answ White against Fisher p. 315. but holy men on earth rejoyce at the conversion of a sinner Luke 15.24 2 Cor. 7.9 Likewise Parents Ministers and Friends rejoyce c. And yet it followeth not from hence that holy men on earth which rejoyce at the conversion of a sinner see the secrets of the heart 1 Cor. 2.11 So likewise Angels which are ministring Spirits Hebr. 1 14. may understand by the signs and fruits of true repentance the conversion of divers sinners and consequently they may rejoyce without intuitive knowledge of the heart 2. Our Saviours words Luke 15.10 are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the conclusion of a parable which must not be strained beyond the true scope But according to the exposition of sundry †Anbrâ—s l. 7. in Lucam Hilar in Matth. 18 Isidâ—r lib. Alleg. Chrysol Serm. 168. Fathers and some learned ‖ Cojet Titus Bostrensis in locum Papists The hundred sheep v. 4. represent the whole body of the Elect consisting of Men and Angels the ninety and nine sheep not lost were the Angels persisting in their prime integrity The stray sheep all mankind sinning in Adam To recover this lost sheep the Son of God that good Shepheard Jo. 10.11 was incarnate and by the gracious work of Redemption he laid the same on his shoulder Now there is great joy in Heaven before the coelestial Angels for this recovery and salvation of mankind So that no more can be inferred from this parable but that the Court of Heaven and in the same the holy Angels rejoyce because of mans Redemption 3. When it is said that there is joy in Heaven we may expound it as Dr. Hammond doth not of the joy of Angels but of God and had we no reason to confirm this sense it is sufficient to destroy the force of what T. G. doth hence conclude from this citation that it may fairly be expounded in that sense which rendereth it impertinent to his design but since it is not said to be the joy of Angels but that joy which is expressed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. before the holy Angels this doth sufficiently demonstrate that it is the joy of him before whose face they stand continually Moreover it is confessedly God who is compared to the Shepherd and to the Woman seeking the lost Groat And therefore the similitude requires that the joy conceived when the lost Sheep and Groat is found should be ascribed to him Whereas our Savour himself saith Object T. G. ib. That the just in the Resurrection shall be as the Angels in Heaven Matth. 22.30 the equality as to knowledge not depending upon the body it follows by the Analogy of Faith that our prayers and concerns are known also to the Saints now injoying the same blissful Vision with the Angels Christ doth not only say Answ That the Spirits of just persons shall be like the Angels but he expresseth wherein they shall be so to wit 1. In freedom from secular actions and passions 2. Inglorious Adoption or real Possession of all the priviledges of the Sons of God We cannot therefore hence infer a parity of qualities and operations betwixt the Angels and the Spirits of just men but only a similitude of state and priviledges as * Verum haec authoritas ut ingemiè fatear solum aequat homines Angelis in hoc quod nullum mutrimonti usum haâ—ebunt siâ—â—t nec Angeli non tamen ibidem facit pareâ— quantum ad facialem visionem Det. Alph. de Castr l. 3. c. Haer. v. Beat. v. Jansen Harm Evang. c. 117. Papists do themselves consess 2. Christ doth not †In illa requie positus ceitè securus expectas judicii diem quando reeipias co â—us quande immuteris ut angelo aequaeris Aust in Ps 36. f 61. say The Spirits of just men are as the Angels now but that at the Resurrection they shall be so White p. 380. Now I admire what Papists can extort from hence for invocation of Saints for there is no connexion between this Antecedent and Consequent to wit just men at the Resurrection shall live as Angels remote from all the necessities of a worldly life and they shall be as the Angels of God free from material and corporeal passions and equal to the Angels in fruition of blessedness Ergo The knowledge of our prayers which we make in this life is not to be denyed unto glorious Saints the fellows of Angels The smoke of the Incenses of the Prayers of the Saints ascended from the hand of the Angel before God Apoc 8.4 Ergo Object ibid. Our prayers and actions are not unknown to the Angels 1. This place of St. John proveth not Answ White p. 314. either clearly or obscurely That holy Angels hear the Prayers or see the actions and affections of men For the Angel mentioned is expounded by the antient Expositors and by the Romanists themselves not of an Angel by Nature but of an Angel by Office and by some of them of an Angel by Type * In locum Albertus in his Commentary St. John saith Another Angel that is Christ who is the Angel of the Covenant Esay 9. Dionysius Carthusianus (a) Doctores Caeâ—belici per Angelum isium intelligunt Christum qui magni
have these words †Confiteer Dâ—â— omnipotenti Beatae Mariae sâ—mper Virgini Beato Michaeli Archangelo Beato Joanni Baptistae Sanctis Apostolis Petro Paulo ominibus Sanctis vâ—bis Fâ—atres quâ—â—â— peccavi nimis cogicatione v rbo opere Ideo precor Beatam Mariam semper Virginem Beatum Michaelem Archangelum Beatum Joannem Baptistam Sanctos Apostelos Petrum Paulum omnes Sanctes vos Fratres crareprome ad Dominum Deum n sirum Ordinarium Missae p. 217. Ed. Antuerp F. 1605. I confess to God Almighty and to the ever Blessed Virgin to Blessed Michael Archangel to Blessed John Baptist to the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul to all the Saints and to you Brethren that I have sinned in thought word and deed And therefore I entreat the Blessed Virgin the Archangel Michael St. John the Baptist St. Peter and St. Paul and all the Saints and you my Brethren to pray for me to our Lord God This is the doctrine and practice of the Church of Rome and it contains these seven particulars 1. That it is good and profitable for every faithful man and exiled Son of Eve to pray unto the Blessed Virgin and the Saints departed 2. That it is good and profitable thus to intercede not only for the good and welfare of the Church in general but for every single person 3. August Ser. 37. de Sanctis Ser. 3. de pluribus Mart. In Com. plurium Mart. extra tempus Pasch Lect. 4. Whereas the ancient Church spake thus As often as we celebrate the solemnities of holy Martyrs let us so expect by their intercession to obtain from the Lord temporal benefits that by imitating the Martyrs themselves we may deserve to receive eternal which words are still retained in the Roman Breviary we are now taught to pray unto them for all the blessings necessary to eternal life nay we are told that * Gunde mater miserorum quia pater saeculorum dabit te colentibus Congruentem hâ—c mercedem faelicem polisedem Regnis in caelestibus Prosa de Beata Maria f. 30. apud Missale Rom. Ed. Aâ—tuerp 1577. God will give eternal life to those that do adore the Blessed Virgin 4. It is the Doctrine of the Church of Rome that Saints departed may and should be invocated as well by mental as by vocal Prayer This was decreed at Trent this Pastors are enjoyned to teach their People and lastly this we have confirmed by their practice in these words With the desires of our hearts we pray unto you regard the ready service of our minds 5. These Practices and these Petitions are many of them built upon this supposition that the Blessed Saints do hear our prayers and are acquainted with our hopes and with the praises which we offer to them and consequently the Church of Rome in whose solemnities these prayers are used must be deemed to ascribe this knowledge to them For what more foolish and absurd than constantly to call upon them to bear behold and to receive to regard favour and promote our prayers when we complain to pity and consider them that pray to be their Advocates and plead their causes if these addresses be not understood by those Blessed Spirits to whom they are particularly directed Who knows not that to be our Advocate is to commend our cause to God and to entreat that our desires may be granted And who knows not that our cause cannot be thus commended or our disires represented till they first be understood Moreover seeing they do request these Blessed Spirits to receive their vows and to take care that they be paid to God to hear and to receive their praises seeing they do consess their sins unto them and therefore do entreat them to intercede with God in their behalf seeing they do endeavour to move them to commiserate their state by saying that they place their hopes and only confidence upon their intercession they mast acknowledge that these Blessed Spirits are acquainted with their confessions and their vows their hopes and praises and therefore albeit this consequence should be denied T. G. p. We pray unto the Saints departed therefore they do hear us yet this can never be denied We pray unto them to hear and to receive our prayers and praises vows and confessions and therefore we believe they do 6. Hence it is manifest that Papists do not only pray unto them to intercede with God for blessings but do desire that the Blessed Spirits would themselves confer them Thus they entreat St. Peter by the power given to him to unty the bonds of their iniquity and the Apostles to absolve them from their sins by their command and to their Guardian Angel they speak thus Take hold of sword and buckler and rise up to help me say unto my soul I am thy salvation And therefore that they only do entreat them to pray for and with us is a great untruth 7. Seeing the Church of Rome allows of mental Prayers addressed to the Saints seeing their Lyturgy speak thus With the desires of our hearts we pray unto you receive the ready service of our minds seeing they do instruct us in all places and upon all occasions to fly unto their help and succour seeing they do ascribe unto them the knowledge not only of their vows and praises but of their inward hopes they consequently do ascribe unto them the knowledge of the heart and the internal motions of every supplicant as far as these petitions and other actions do require it This is that Doctrine of the Church of Rome which we think justly charged with Idolatry For 1. To ascribe unto the Saints departed by way of worship that excellency which is proper to God is Idolatry but to ascribe unto them by an act of worship the knowledge of the hearts of them that pray unto them is to ascribe unto them that excellency which is proper to God by Propos 2. Ergo. 2. Prayer offered and put up in any time or place to an invisible and incorporeal Being is the oblation of that worship to it which is due to God by Prop. 4. Corol. 3. but this devotion of the Roman Church is prayer offered up in any time or place to an invisible and incorporeal Being and therefore must be the oblation of that worship which is due to God and being offered to those Blessed Spirits which are confessedly Creatures it must be the oblation of that worship which is due to God unto the Creature which we have proved to be Idolatry 3. To vow to Saints departed is to ascribe unto them the honour due to the Creator by Prop 4. Corol. 2. but Papist vow unto the Saints departed therefore they do ascribe unto them the honour due to the Creator The Answer Bellarmine returns unto the Major of this Argument is this That to vow in sign of gratitude to the first and chiefest Good and in recognition of a benefit received from him as the first Author
the Ephesians the spirit of Wisdome and Revelation in the knowledge of him Eph. 1.17 18. the eyes of their Vnderstanding being enlightned That he would grant that Christ might dwell in their hearts by faith 3.17.18.19 that they might be strengthned by his Spirit in the inner man that they being rooted and grounded in love might be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height And to know the love of God which passeth knowledge and be filled with all fulness of God That the Philippians love might abound more in knowledge Phil. 1.9 10 11. and in all judgment that they might approve things that are excellent and be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ Being filled with the fruits of righteoussness to the praise and glory of God That the Colossians might be filled with the knowledge of the will of God in all wisdom Col. 1.9 10 11. and spiritual understanding that they might walk worthy of the Lord unto all well pleasing being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledg of God Strengthened with all might according to his glorious power unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness 1 Thess 3.12 13 That the Thessalonians might encrease in love and have their hearts established unblamable in holiness before God 2.1.11.12 That God would count them worthy of his calling and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with power That the God of Peace would make the Hebrews perfect in every good work to do his will Heb. 13.20 21. 1 Pet. 5.10 working in them that which is well pleasing in his sight That the God of Grace would make them perfect stablish strengthen settle them These Supplications were their daily exercise and had they thought the Invocation of the blessed Virgin the Patriarchs and Prophets the Proto-Martyr and the brother of our Lord would have been needful and effectual to the attainment of these things for which they prayed so earnestly why do they never once address themselves unto them why do they never pray as doth the Church of Rome Brevarium Missal that through the deprecation intervention patrocination and intercession of these persons they may be worthy to obtain these blessings why do they never pray by the merits of these persons to be delivered from * Deus qui beatum Nicolaum P. tribue qâ—aeâ—un us ut ejus moritis pracibus 〈◊〉 Ochenna incend is liberemus Miss in sest sanâ— Nich. Dec. xi Deus q. â— beatuâ— Lodovicum ju quaesamus meritis intercessione Regis Regan â—â—su Christâ—â— fâ—l â—ui facias nos esse can oâ—tes in Fest beat Lud. Aug 25. Hell and made partakers of the joys of Heaven as doth the Roman Blashemy Why do they no declare with them that they do †In Fest faâ—ct Agapiti Aug. 28. place their confidence in the petitions of these prevailing Saints and blessed Spirits Why do they not ascribe their mercys and deliverances to the ‖ Accepta tibâ— siâ— â—â—mine sacratâ—e plebâ—s oblatio pro inorum Hâ—nors Sanctâ—um quâ—râ—mâ—â—e â—â—ritis perâ—â—â—â— de tribulatione cognoseit 〈◊〉 Miss Dee â—â—â—p 〈◊〉 Ed. Antwerp 1605. merits of these Saints as they most insolently do Assuredly on this account because they did not in their hearts approve the practise Were blessed Paul alive to see his Prophesy so punctually fulfilled That in these later times men should depart from the Faith attending to erroneous Spirits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to the Doctrine of worshipping departed Souls how would he passionately cry out O foolish Romanists who hath bewitched you c. Lastly St. Paul had such an ardent zeal to the promotion of the Gospel that he omits no help which he conceives might give a blessing to his labours He therefore passionately intreats the Christians to whom his writings are directed Rom. 15.30 31. That they would strive together with him in their prayers to God that he might be delivered from them who did not believe in Judea and that his Service which he had for Jerusalem might be accepted of the Saints and that he might come unto them with joy and with them be refreshed That they would alwaies Eph. 6.18 19. and with all perseverance pray for him that utterance might be given unto him hat he might open his mouth boldly to make known the Mystery of the Gospel Col. 4.1 2 3. That they would continue in prayer that God would open unto him a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ for which he was in hands that he might make it manifest as he ought to speak 1 Thes 5 25.2-3.1.2 Finally Brethren saith he pray for us that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified even as it is with you And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men for all men have not Faith So blessed Paul and had he thought that his addresses to the Patriarchs and Prophets the blessed Virgin the Quire of Angels or the Saints made perfect would have been more effectual to this end would not his zeal have prompted him to have put up one request unto them or one Petition to his Guardian-Angel to be defended from these unreasonable men If all these circumstances be considered it will amount to an invincible conviction of the falshood of that determination of the Church of Rome * Juxta Catholicae Apostolicae Ecclesiae usum à primaevis Christianae Religionis temporibus receptum Concil Trid. Sess 25. that this is the practise which was derived from the Apostles and hath been still continued in the Church of Christ 2. No other reason can be given why they did not practise or commend the Invocation of the blessed Spirits besides this that they conceived this worship to be that honour God had reserved for himself and that they looked upon it as a vain and fruitless practice The knowledg of the heart and of the Prayers that are put up by All men at all times and in all places of the Earth being the knowledg proper to the God of Heaven and not communicated to the Saints deceased This will appear more evident if we consider and refute those shifts whereby they do endeavour to evade the force of this triumphant Evidence And 1. They tell us that * Si Apostoli Evangelistae docuissent sanctos venerandos arrogantiae iis datum fuisset ac si post mortem gloriam illam quaesivissent noluit ergo Spiritus Sanctus expressis Scipturis docere invocationem Sanctorum Eckius in Enchirid. loc Com. ex edit Alex. Weissenhorn Alanus Copus Dial. 3. fol. 239. had the Blessed Apostles taught this doctrine it might have been objected to them that they sought their own advancement and honour by the propagation of their Gospel and proudly did endeavour to be worshipped by their Christian followers Repl. 1.
body that sustains that loss will tell us where this lost Cloak is If God doth either from the Law of Friendship or for our profit reveal the secrets of mens hearts unto them and inform both Saints and Angels of our Prayers and our Necessities why should we not conceive that he is as ready to inform them of those hidden and contingent things which it as much concerneth us to be informed of as to receive an Answer to our Prayers v. g. if he informed the twenty Martyrs of Florentius his Petition that his Cloak might be given to him T. G. p. 423 424. why should he not inform them where it was or if those blessed Spirits do by virtue of the beatifick Vision see our Prayers and Wants why should they not be thought to view our Losses and our future state in the same beatifick Vision If that could represent unto the twenty Martyrs Florentius's Prayer why not his Cloak and where it was They who see God see all things in him which belong unto him say the Roman Doctors therefore they see the Prayers directed to him for they objectively must be in God they that see God saith the Magitian see all things in him and therefore they must see things future and concealed for they objectively must be in God and with what shew of reason can any man reject the latter inference who doth allow the former for to be the Searcher of the Heart is not less proper to God then is the Knowledge of what is future and contingent Nay Holy Scripture seemes more clearly to appropriate to God the Knowledge of the Heart then of things future and contingent for it expresly saith thou only knowest the Hearts of men but doth not so expresly say thou only knowest what is to come Moreover the secret motions of our Heart do equally depend upon our will which is uncertain and very subject unto change if therefore it be truly said that what is future and contingent cannot be known by any creature because it doth depend on what is mutable and therefore to expect this knowledge from a Creature or to ascribe it to him is to be Guilty of Idolatry the like must be affirmed of the thoughts and inward motions of the Heart which equally depending on the free motions of the will must be obnoxious to the same uncertaintyes CHAP. XI The CONTENTS The Canon of the Councel of Laodicea de iis qui Angelos Colunt is laid down and the Judgment of Theodoret and Photius upon it Sect. 1. And it is proved 1. That it contains the Sentence and belief of the whole Church of Christ Sect. 2. That it forbids the Invocation and Worship of Angels Sect. 3. That the Angels whose Invocation and Worship it forbids were blessed Spirits and not evil Angels Sect. 4. That it forbids what is the Practice of the Church of Rome Sect. 5. That it pronounceth the Worship and Invocation of the holy Angels to be Idolatry Sect. 6. That in the Judgment of the Fathers this was the Worship which St. Paul condemned 2 Coloss Sect. 7. The evasions of T. G. confuted ibid. And all the other Answers of the Romanists Sect. 8. THat what we have thus confirmed from Scripture and the voice of Reason § 1. hath also the consent and the concurrent suffrage of Antiquity we shall demonstrate not from the words of any single Father but from the clear decision of the whole Church of God which is delivered to us in these words viz. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Codex Canonum Eccles Univers Can. 139. That Christians ought not to forsake the Church of God and depart a side and invocate Angels and make meetings which are things forbidden If any man therefore be found to give himself to this privy Idolatry let him be accursed Because he hath forsaken our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God and betaken himself to Idolatry In the Epitomy of Canons collected by Dionisius Exiguus and which Pope Adrian delivered to Charles the great this Decree is thus entitled (a) Jusâ—el Cod. Can Eccles p. 106. Canon de his qui Angelos colunt a Decree concerning those that worship Angels (b) Brev. Canon 90. Crisconius hath the like Theodoret who lived in the next Century upon those words of the Apostle Let no man defraud you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshiping of Angels writes that (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodoret. in Coloss c. 2. They who were zealous for the Law perswaded men to worship Angels because say they the Law was given by them This did they councel to be done pretending himility and saying that the God of all things was invisible and inaccessible and incomprehensible and that it was fit we should procure Gods favor by the means of Angels And again (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. in Col. 2. Because they commanded men to worship Angels saith Theoderet he enjoyneth the contrary that they should adorn their words and deeds with the Commemoration of our Lord Christ and send up thanksgiving to God and the Father by him and not by the Angels The Synod of Laodicea also following this Rule and desiring to heal that old disease made a Law that they should not pray to Angels nor forsake our Lord Jesus Christ And lastly (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. in Col. 2. This vice saith he continued in Phrygia and Pisidia for a long time For which cause also the Synod assembled in Laodicea the chief City of Phrygia forbad them by a Law to pray to Angels and even to this day among them and their Borderers there are Oratories of St. Michael to be Seen The like hath Oecumenius upon the same place saying that (b) Oecumen MS. in Coloss 2. apud Hoechelium in Origenem contra Celfum In libris editis desideratur this Custom continued in Phrygia insomuch that the Councel of Laodicea did by a Law forbid to come to Angels and to pray unto them From whence it is also that there be many Churches of Michael the Cheif Captain of Gods Host among them This Canon of the Laodicean Fathers Photius doth note to have been made against the (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phot. Nomocanon tit 12. c. 9. Angelites or the Angelicks rather For so St. (a) Angelici in Angelorum cultum inclinati Aug. de haeres c. 39. Augustin names those Hereticks that were inclined to the worship of Angles being from thence called (b) Angelici vocati quia Angelos colunt Isidor Orig. l. 8. c. 5. Angelici as Isidorus noteth because they did worship Angels Now that the strength of what we argue from this Canon And that the vanity of what the Romanists except against it may appear 1. Let it be noted that the forementioned Canon containeth the Sentence and Belief of the whole Church of Christ 5 2. for it is a Canon of that Code which the whole Christian World did use
1 Gal. 6. that the Galatians had deserted him that called them because they joyned the observation of the Law to the profession of the Gospel of Christ so doth St. Paul and the Laodicean Fathers declare that those Angelicks had deserted Christ because they joyned the Mediation of the blessed Angels to Christ the only Mediator of his Church 6. Let it be noted §. 7. that those Fathers and Interpreters do with one mouth affirm was what this Canon thus condemned was what St. Paul had long before condemned in his Epistle to the Colossians and therefore that St. Paul did in the judgment of those Fathers condemn the worship and invocation of the belssed Angels as Idolatry Theodoret expresly saith that because they commanded men to worship Angels he enjoyneth the contrary that they should adorn their words and their deeds with commemoration of our Lord Christ p. 378. and send up thanksgiving to God and the Father by him and not by the Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to this T. G. replies That these words of Paul viz. in a voluntary humility and not holding the bead sufficiently intimate a particularity in the worship which St. Paul condemned and this was saith St. Crysostome that some among the Colossians said that we ought to be rceonciled and have access to the Father not by Christ but by the Angels and this saith he is that which is said id est condemned by the Apostle that they so admitted and worshiped the Angels for Mediators as to exclude Christ Ans In this Reply according to T. G. his constant custom we have two horrid falsifications of the words of Chrysostome For 1. These words we ought to be reconciled are disingenuously added to the words or Chrysostome that he might seem to say that they whom Paul condemned did attribute unto the Angels our reconcilement unto God 2. What he asserts to to be assigned as a reason why St. Paul condemned their Worship is in St. Chrysostome a reason why they were * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost in locum pufft up and did pretend humility but is not assigned as a reason why St. Paul condemnes this worship 3. He doth expresly say that because these men introduced Angels St. Paul in opposition to them did exhort us to do all by Invocation of the name of Christ and not to introduce the Angels now he that doth exhort us whether we eat or drink or whatsoever else we do before we set upon it to put up our Petitions to him and then adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must in all reason be supposed to forbid us to put up our petitions to them in reference to any thing we do T. G. p. 378. proceeds to tell us that the reason why they excluded Christ from reconciliation is given by Theophilact * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they esteemed it a thing unworthy of the Majesty of the only begotten Son on the one side to make the Reconciliation and far transcending Mans poverty and lowness on the other Reply 'T is an old saying and a true that one Ly begets an other Thus T. G. having falsly cited Chrysostom he gives as false a Reason of what he never said For doth Theophylact say they esteemed it unworthy of Christ on the other side to make the Reconciliation no T. G. confesseth that he doth not by putting this in a different Character from the words of Theophylact doth he say that something was esteemed unworthy but doth not tell us what that was that so T. G. might have some colour for saying it was reconciliation No he expresly saith they deemed it beneath Christ to bring us unto God or to procure our access unto him and that it was beyond our meannes immediately to go unto him Do any of the latter Scholiasts since that this practice was used in the Church of Christ suggest this sense No they expressely say that which these Hereticks asserted was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Balsamon Zonaras Aristenus that we ought not to pray to Christ for his assistance or introduction to the Father Must that expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be thus expounded To make this reconciliation is a thing far transcending Mans lowness No St. Chrysostom and all the Scholiasts do manifestly say the contrary and they all expound it thus that Christ was greater then that we should go unto him and that to be introduced by Christ was a thing greater then we could expect Or lastly doth the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 import this Reconciliation no the proper import of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to procure access and they were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who obtained admission or favour for the supplicant Thirdly p. 379. he answers that St. Paul and the Council of Laodicea in the Judgment of Theodoret forbad the worshiping or praying to Angels upon account that the Law was delivered by them and therefore as Theophylact saith they brought us Salvation Answer As if Theophylacis assertion who lived above 400 years after this Council met were to be valued when both Theodoret and Photius and Chrysostom who lived almost 400 years before him gave not one item of it but do assign such reasons of that Prohibition as nothing do relate unto it 2. It is false that Theophylact affirms that they who prayed to Angels because the Law was delivered by them did therefore say they brought us Salvation for he asserts not that this Law was made aginst Judaizing Christians as doth Theodoret and Photius but against those who from pretences of humility excluded Christ 3. To be so far our Saviours only as to bring or to discover the tydings of Salvation to us is no otherwise to be our Saviours then were the Blessed Apostles and Evangelists and so to worship them as such is but to worship them as Papists do St. Paul and Peter 4. This will be more apparent from his words * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They said it was unworthy of the Majesty of Christ to bring us to the Father and that it was beyond them to desire it and therefore did conceive it more agreeable to reason to think that Angels ministred to our Introduction and hence they introduced the worship of Angels and perswaded the more ignorant to go unto them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to those that saved us by ministring unto our Introduction to God from whom we do obtain Salvation and thus the Papists also do perswade the ruder people to look upon them as their Saviours for by the suffrage of the Holy Angels they hope to obtain Salvation and by the intercession of their Guardian Angel they hope to enjoy God and therefore in this language call upon him Say unto my Soul thou art my Salvation We meet with many other answers to this Canon and to that passage of St. Paul in Perroon Bellarmine Petavius
amounting to this only That they forbid only that supplication which was tendred to them as to Gods or as to primary and only Mediators But 1. the Canon speaks of Christians now to suppose that they whose Fundamental Principle it is to own one only God should also worship Angels as God is the extremity of folly 2. Theodoret and Jerom declare Epist ad Algasiam quest 10. that they who did abet this Doctrine were Jews or persons zealous of the Law Now these Men knew that Angels were but the Instruments and Creatures of God and therefore could not worship them as Gods 3. They chose these Angels as fit persons to introduce them to God and used their Meditation upon this pretence that such mean persons should not go directly to him and therefore could not look upon them as partakers of the nature to God In a word § 8. what can be more incredible then that St. Paul being assisted by the Holy Spirit and the whole Church of Christ should daily practice this worship and Invocation of the Holy Angels and teach all Christians so to do and yet affirm these things without any limitation or distinction which if we may interpret them according to the plain and obvious meaning of the words do manifestly condemn that which they did daily practice and lay upon Saint Paul and the whole Church of Christ on supposition of this practice the imputation of Idolatry and of deserting our Blessed Lord and should deliver and approve these things as the Doctrines of the Christian Faith which all Men stood obliged to believe Nothing can be more contrary unto the worship and Invocation of these blessed Spirits then an express command that we should neither worship nor Invoke them can it then enter into the heart of any sober person to believe that the whole Church of Christ even when they taught and practised both should make receive and in their Universal Synods should solemnly confirm a Law without distinction or exception forbidding both the worship and Invocation of them and requiring all good Christians to avoid this practice as being the deserting of their Saviour and the giving of Gods worship to those Spirits Since this Devotion hath obtained in the Church of Rome who ever heard of any Romanist who roundly and without distinction would assert that to invoke an Angel was Idolatry or that this Invocation was forbidden by the Church of Christ as doth Theodoret and Photius and the Laodicean Council who of them ever cautioned all Christian people as St. Paul hath done that no Man should seduce them to the worship of those Blessed Spirits What Council ever did decree that they should not be worshipped or invoked or own such Doctrine as any part of Christian Faith And yet we find this done both by Saint Paul and by the Laodicean Council by Origen Theodoret and Photius and the whole Church of Christ viz. what they confirmed by their daily practice they not only did forbid but they pronounced it to be Idolatry and the deserting of their Saviour what they had thus decreed in opposition to their own daily practice that they obtruded as a dictate of the Holy Ghost and as the matter of their Faith but against the worshiping of Angels with Divine Worship or as sole or primary Mediators which if we may believe the Church of Rome was the only thing in which they did offend we have no mention in the least That there were in the world such Hereticks as said it was beyond us or was too great an arrogance to go directly to the Son of God and that God was Inaccessible and therefore we must go to Angels this Synod I suppose must know as well as Chrysostom and Theodoret why therefore do they never mention as do the latter Comments on this Canon what they alone designed to prevent Why do they not recall these Hereticks unto that invocation of these Blessed Angels which had obtained in the Church of Christ and tell them that they need not to desert the Church or gather private conventicles in order to the Invocation of these Angels Why do not they or or any other person that flourished in the fourth or fifth Ages of the Church when this injunction was in force distinguish between the Invocation of the Holy Angels which the Church did practise and that which was forbidden by this Canon Why doth S. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 5. contra Celsum p. 236. Origen conclude that Celsus had not read that passage of St. Paul to the Colossians because he said the Worship of the Holy Angels was no transgression of their Law For what is this but to suggest that this text of Scripture is so plain against the worship of them that he that reads it cannot think that they who own it can admit that Worship Why doth Theodoret affirm that because Hereticks commanded men to worship Angels S. Paul enjoyned the contrary for what is contrary to a command to worship Angels but an injunction not to Worship Angels Why doth he say that the Apostle doth command us to send up our Thanksgivings by Christ and not by the Angels for by whom we may send up our Petitions why may we not send up Thanksgiving too Why doth both he and Photius inform us that the Laodicean Synod being desirous to heal this old disease enjoyned Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to pray to Angels For is not this a shrewd suspition that this Idololatrical disease was only that of praying to Angels or else that both Theodoret and Photius were such intolerable dolts as to represent the very practise of the Christians as the disease of the Idolaters and the desertors of our Blessed Lord Why is it lastly that St. Chrysostom informes us that for a cure of this disease St. Paul enjoyned all Christians to invoke the name of Christ and not to bring in Angels suggesting this unto us that the Invocation of Angels was not consistent with that of Christ and that by saying do all things in the name of Christ he hath commanded us to pray unto him and call upon him as our helper and not upon the holy Angels Who knows not that a sentence against any person ought in some words or other to specify the crime that it condemns and that an act so framed as to condemn a person as guilty of the highest crimes and worthy of the severest punishments for doing what in the plain and literal meaning of the words all they that framed the act and they that owned it as a Law did dayly practise is an absurdity that Humane Nature cannot possibly be guilty of When therefore I can find an Act of Parliament intending only to condemn Incestuous conversation framed thus whosoever shall marry any Woman let him be severely punished or a decree of any Council intending only to forbid us to go to the Assembly of Hereticks thus worded Whosoever shall go to Church let him be