which is in some measure an anticipation of the fruition of heaven But yet to make it more manifest to the intent that either you must deny Scripture or confess this truth see what Saint Luke saith in his Gospel that the rich man being in hell prayed to Abraham which I hope you will say is a Saint And he cryed Luke 16. v. 24. and said Father Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water to cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame from which we may gather that if this damned man prayed and hoped for mercy to be obtained for him by Abraham to whom he chiefly applyed himself is it not unreasonable to think that Christians which are in hopes of heaven and in the state of Grace may not do the same to Abraham or any the other Saints Ver. 25. with more hopes then he could have and better success and you may read here that Abraham heard him where ere he was and told him it could not be done because he had enjoyed his pleasures in this world and the other pains so by this we may see that the practice of this Article of Faith is not grounded upon weak foundations but on the Infallible Word of God which cannot deceive us unless we deceive our selves by the misapplying of it Besides let every Christian consider what a great folly they are guilty of when they say the Angels do not know this nor the Saints do not know that and so must not be prayed to when we do not know the nature of our own sinful souls that is within us and yet will be so vain as pretend to know the power and nature of those glorious Spirits who in knowing God do know all things and by our having Communion with them we have fellowship with the Blessed Trinity by our praying to them God is so much the more honoured as they are in Dignity and Desert above us and as we know by experience that a King granteth sooner the desires of a mean Subject by the Mediation of his grand Favourite so in reason we may believe that the King of Heaven will do the same to us by the Mediation of his Saints in Heaven The common objection by Protestants and others is that our Saviour faith Come unto me all ye that are laden and I will refresh you This was Christs goodness to invite us to come to him and how poor a shift this is for them to prove that we must not pray to Angels and Saints shall appear plainly for if because Christ invites us to come to him we must not apply our selves to any others then we must not pray one for another as Saint James commands us Jam. 5. v. 16. then why do we desire Priests or Ministers to pray for us when we are sick and upon many other occasions wherein we have need enough onely because we think their prayers to God is more acceptable then our own now all this is done without derogation to Christ nay you know it is to his honour and glory to pray one for another we all account it a great charity and if it be so then there is no doubt but that we may desire the blessed Saints to pray for us to God through the merits of Christ and it will redound more to his glory then our praying one for another can possibly do Rev. 5. v. 18. One Text more I shall shew you and not of small concern as to this point in Saint Johns Revelations where he saith the four and twenty Elders fell down before the Lamb or Christ having their harps and golden vials full of Odours which are the Prayers of Saints by which it is plain that they offered up their Prayers to Christ Ver. 3.4 for so Saint John expounds it himself that these vials full of Odours were the prayers of Saints and in the eighth Chapter he saith And another Angel came and stood at the Altar having a golden Censer and there was given to him much Incense that he should offer it with the Prayers of all Saints upon the golden Altar which was before the Throne and the smoke of the Incense which came with the Prayers of the Saints ascended up before God out of the Angels hand so by this it is apparent that we may pray to them and that they do offer up our prayers to God and pray for us Now it will be necessary to clear that mistake in Protestants who think we make no difference between our praying to Christ and our Intercession to Saints It would be a great Heresie for any one to hold 1 John 2. v. 1. that the Power and Mediation of Christ should not be far above all that of Angels or Arch-Angels and Saints in heaven Rhem. Test on this place therefore we are to understand what kinde of Mediatour Christ is and how he is our Advocate to the Father The Calling and Office of an Advocate is in many things proper to Christ and to him onely it appertains to procure us Mercy from his heavenly Father by the general ransome price and payment of his Blood for our delivery as is in the Sentence following He is the propitiation for our sins and not for our sins onely but for the sins of the whole world in which sort he is our onely Advocate because he is our onely Redeemer and hereupon he alone immediately by his own Merits without the aid or assistance of any man or Angel in his own Name and right confidently dealeth in our Causes before God our Judge and so procureth our pardon and this is the highest degree of Advocation that can be by all which you may see that we Catholicks attribute to Christ in a more excellent sort his power in his Mediatorship then Protestants do or imagine who make poor ignorants believe that none must mediate for us but Christ thinking meerly by a bare show of zeal to Christ to null all other mediations when by that means they dishonour him by comparing or valuing his Mediation at no higher a price then we do Angels Saints and Mens Now when we pray to an Angel or Saint we desire them to pray for us to God the Father or the Blessed Trinity that they would obtain for us of God this or that favour through our Lord Jesus Christ so that all is desired through the Merits of our Saviour And when we pray to Christ for any thing we ought to pray to him as he is God and not to say O Christ pray for me as we do to an Angel or Saint for that were a dishonour to him in making him of less power then the two other Divine persons of the blessed Trinity who is equal to both and who in three persons makes but one true and ever-living God blessed to all eternity Should I produce the Authority and Practice of Gods Church and the ancient Fathers I might
fill a large volume to confirm you I will onely conclude with that of Saint Augustine Aug Med. 40. where invoking the Saints he saith O holy and Immaculate Virgin Mary Mother of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ vouchsafe to intercede for me to him whose Temple thou was deserved to be made holy Michael holy Gabriel holy Raphel holy Quire of Angels and Arch-Angels Patriarchs and Prophets A postles Evangelists Martyrs Confessors and all the Just I humbly crave that you would vouchsafe to intercede to God for me a poor Sinner that I may be delivered from the Jaws of the Devil and from Eternal Death Amen Chap. 7. Shewing that in all Ages Angels have been assistant to Man for his good and that we ought to reverence the Memory both of Angels and Saints as they are the chief Attendants on the living God IT is no wonder we are so little acquainted with those glorious Citizens Angels and Saints when we consider how the memory of them is slighted and contemned in this our unhappy Age and that men now adayes desire no more society with them then they would do with those that designs their ruine so miserably hath Satan depraved our natures and suggested to us a slighting of those Blessed Spirits to the intent he may draw us the more to his hellish service and so consequently to our utter destruction But to undeceive a little those that are thus corrupted with this principle I shall plainly show you many examples from holy Scripture both of the great good they have done to many holy men and also what Worship and Reverence they have done to the Angels The first is from that of holy Abraham Gen. 18. v. 2. when the three Angels appeared to him to let him know the good news of his having a Son the Text saith He ran to meet them from the Tent-door and bowed himself toward the ground The second place that of holy Lot Gen. 19. v. 1. And there came two Angels to Sodom at even and Lot sate in the gate of Sodom and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them and he bowed himself with his face towards the ground and said My Lords turn in I pray you Ver. 2. c. Now here I may demand why the holy Scripture should instance to us their bowing with their faces to the ground but onely to show us that as they are the heavenly Ambassadours that kinde of reverence is due to them Thirdly when the Angel appeared to Joshua by Jericho Josh 5. v. 13.14.15 he demanded who he was for and the Angel said Nay but as Captain of the host of the Lord am I come and Joshua fell on his face to the earth and did worship and the Angel bid him pull off his shooes for the place where he stood was holy ground So here you see is first the Angels assistance in coming to fight for them and secondly a high worship done to him and the place where he stood by pulling off his shooes and yet so miserably blinded are people now adayes to think and say that these kinde of things are Superstition not at all considering that it ever hath that it is and ever will be the practice of all holy men to do this homage to them Fourthly an Angel appears to the Israelites at Gilgal Judg. 2. v. 1.4 and for their good tells them of what things God had done for them which when he had done all the people lift up their voices and wept Fifthly an Angel appears to Gideon to comfort and strengthen him against the Midianites Judg. 6. v. 12.22 23. and when he perceived it was an Angel of God he was afraid he should dye till God told him he should not by which we may see what a reverend apprehension he had of the Angel Sixthly an Angel appears to Sampsons Mother and tells her being barren the glad news of a Son if you read the whole Chapter Judg. 13. v. 3. it is much to our purpose both to see how the holy Angel conversed with his Father and Mother both as also with what reverence they treated with him Seventhly we read that the holy Prophet Elijah being a sleep under a Juniper-tree 1 Kings 19. v. 5. an Angel awaked him which brought him both to eat and drink in the Wilderness where he was and where no bread was to be had and the Angel appeared to him the second time Ver. 6. and he rose and eat what the Angel brought him and by vertue of that went forty dayes and forty nights on his journey A ninth place is of an Angel assisting the people of God in the slaying of the Assyrians Isa 37. v. 36. 185000. men which came against them and Hezekiah their King Again in the Book of Tobias we read of many good things done by the Angel Raphel as to young Tobias in guiding of him in his journey from all dangers Tobit 3. v. 17. in chasing away and binding the Devil Asmodius in curing of old Tobias and many others of that kinde Chap. 12. v. 15. and at last he tells him who he was and how he was one of the seven Angels that presents the Prayers of the Saints Ver. 16. and goes in and out before the holy One then they were both troubled and fell upon their faces for they feared which trouble we may conceive was because they had not done him before the worship due to an Angel I could produce many other places out of the old Testament to prove this but I will now proceed to the new and first of that most happy and ever blessed news of our Redemption where the holy Angel Gabriel was imployed for our eternal good to declare to the Blessed Virgin Mary the Incarnation of the Son of God in her Virginal Womb Luke 1. v. 26.27 28. we may devoutly imagine there passed much reverence between two such creatures as they which were in so high esteem with God the one to be his Mother and the other his Ambassador Secondly the same Angel came to Zacharias the Priest and told him the glad tydings of his Son John yet when he saw him he trembled and was afraid for very reverence to the Angel So again thirdly two Angels appeared to St. Mary Magdalen Luke 20. v. 12. and the Disciples to tell them the good news of our Saviours Resurrection which was no small comfort to them and after that an Angel visits St. Peter in prison and breaks his gives and chains and opens the doors Acts 12. v. 7.8 9 10. and the City Gates and lets him free Again an Angel appears to Cornelius and assists him by counselling him to send for Peter about his salvation Acts 11. v. 3.4 and when he saw the Angel he was afraid nay when Saint Peter came he fell down before him as being a holy man but his humility would not suffer him to continue so In like manner the
ends of the Mercy-seat And again God saith to him That there he would meet and commune with him now these Cherubims were the Images of the highest Order of Angels and sure they think God knew not what he did in commanding these Images if he had forbid them before And further to shew you that absurdity observe that God likewise commanded Moses to make the Image of a Brazen Serpent and set it up upon a pole that those which were stung with Serpents as many were should look up to that image and be cured And Moses made a Serpent of Brass Num. 21. v. 8 9. and set it upon a pole and if a Serpent had bitten any man he looked upon the Serpent of Brass and lived now one would think that this should be Idolatry so to look up to this Image and be presently cured or cause them another time to do so that were so prone to it as the Jews were but that they are we know it was God and not the Image that cured them But now I would fain know from our Adversaries who was the first commander of Images to be made and set up I hope they will say now that God was for if they do not they must belye Gods word which must be truth and their own Consciences which may be false It is enough to amaze a serious man when he considers the grand cheat that is put upon thousands of poor souls and the continual thundring out of Pulpits against Images Oh these Idolatrous Images when God knows they adore an Idol which is their giddy fancy by offering up their will memory and understanding on its prophane Altar for observe that if God had forbid Images why do they picture Deaths Image in their Churches and Queen Elizabeth's lying in her Tomb and the Marble Statues and Tombs of Kings and other persons with Flags Streamers and Images of some Benefactors and the like let every Christian judge were these better then Christ or his blessed Mother or the Apostles or were they better Benefactors to the Church then Christ hath been and his Discriples for if it be no sin nor Idolatry to set up those in Churches sure it is none to set up Christs and his Saints Images But perhaps you will say we do not adore them as Gods nor pray to them nor trust in them and I do assure you that I will say nor Catholicks neither but do denounce a curse against them that do adore or pray or trust in them as Gods for can any but senseless creatures think that we which adore God in spirit and in truth and confess him to be three distinct Persons and one God can be so sottish as to think that an Image or Picture can either hear speak or see much less to be trusted in as a God Again If Images were forbid why do Protestants nay the Ministers themselves desire to have their own Pictures and Wives and Childrens which are onely for Vanity and not for Devotion at all as Christs and his Saints Images are as I shall show hereafter and besides there is no Protestant of the Profession of Carving and Painting but will make an Image of Christ and his Apostles or any else for money and do daily sell them as we all know which if it were Idolatry then were you guilty for making selling and keeping them too which is as foolish to think as the other And now having sufficiently proved the lawfulness of them I will now show what good use we have and may have by them as for example I would fain know why an ignorant person or any other may not receive knowledge and instruction by seeing our Saviours bitter passion painted and plainly set forth as to read it Printed upon Paper for in that way we receive our knowledge by the eye and so do we by the Pictures and I am sure it is more dolorous and piercing to see the perfect manner of his sufferings Painted then to read them Printed though both be very good besides many times when our mindes are wandering after worldly business yea in our prayers too often then if we reflect our eyes upon those heavenly Figures as our Saviour and his Saints it reduces our strayed thoughts to God and heaven and to what our Blessed Saviour hath suffered for us and so they are books to those that cannot read and great helps to Devotion to them that can and I am very certain that if the greatest enemies of them in the world did use and practice them the same manner as Catholicks do it would as justly it might convert their hatred to a perfect love of them and be much ashamed that they have so long slandered Gods Church and deprived themselves of so great a good by believing such abominable untruths wherewith she hath been falsly charged withal and therefore that I may totally root out of mens mindes those common aspersions cast upon her I shall adde a little to declare how and in what manner they are to be used according to that of the Councel Coun. Trent We command all Bishops and others who have the Office and care of Teaching that they diligently instruct faithful people teaching them that the Images of Christ of the Virgin Mary Mother of God and of other Saints are to be had and retained especially in Churches and that due reverence be given unto them not that there is any Divinity to be believed to be in them or power for which they are to be worshipped or that any thing is to be asked of them or that confidence is to be put in them as anciently the Gentiles did in their Idols but because the honour which is done to them is referred to those who they represent Now by this alone you may see what this supposed Mountain of Image Worship is come to which is so untruly thundered out in Pulpits against us so that when we pray before an Image we do not pray to the Image nor when we look with reverence upon them we do not adore them but as I said before in the other Chapter what respect is done to the Kings Chair of State or Chamber of Presence or Picture is referred to him and his Honour so is it the self same to christs and his Saints Images and as no man would take him for the Kings friend but his enemy that should contemn break or burn his Picture or his Mothers or his Favourites so justly may we think them to be Christs enemies that have done all that to his and his holy Mothers and Saints with as great scorn and contempt as might be and all under the pretended zeal for the word of God by which they have deceived many thousands of poor souls but now having as I hope sufficiently proved the verity of our practice herein and the impostures of those that profess the contrary I leave it to every reasonable man to judge whether it be lawful or no and so conclude with the