the permanent substance of our Souls on which all the general Precepts of Morality are ingraven as innate Notions of our Duty And therefore it is hereby intimated that the Precepts of the Decalogue are just and fitting not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not onely by an externall Law but engraffed in our very Nature and Reason and that the root and ground of them will easily be fetch'd from thence To which you may adde That it were a very immethodicall and heterogeneous Botch unworthy of the Wisedome of God and of his Servant Moses whenas all the rest of the Decalogue is Moral to phansy one or two of the Commandments of another nature This is so rash and gross a Reproach to the Divine Wisedome as truly in my judgement seems unexcusable But besides this The Morality of the Decalogue is also acknowledged by the Church it making part of their Liturgie every-where and we begging an ability of obeying the Second Commandment as well as the rest and Christ also referrs to the Decalogue for eternall life And lastly It seems as it were singled from all the rest of Moses Laws as a lasting and permanent Law to the Church of God whence it is entred into our very Catechisms never to be abolished or rather vigorously to be kept in force for the Second Commandment's sake particularly that it might strongly bear against those Invitations to Idolatry that may seem to offer themselves in the nature of our Religion or reclaim the Church from it when they were fallen into it as well as it was to keep back the Jews from joyning in Worship with their Idolatrous neighbors round about them Wherefore all manner of Idolatry being cautioned against by the Moral Decalogue given to the Jews there are no kinds thereof that ought to be entertained or allow'd of by any Christians 4. The third Conclusion That what-ever was Idolatry in the Heathen the same is Idolatry in us if we commit it The reason of which Assertion is this Because the Heathen had not so express a Declaration from God against all manner of Idolatry as the Jews and Christians have and therefore where-ever they are guilty of Idolatry the Jew and Christian if they doe the like things are much more The fourth Conclusion The Idolatry of the Pagans consisted in this viz. in that they either took something to be the supreme God that was not and worshipped it for such or else worshipped the supreme God in an Image or gave religious Worship that is to say erected Altars Temples and Images offered Sacrifice made Vows to and invoked such as they themselves knew not to be the supreme God but either the Souls of men departed or other Daemons or else particular Appearances or Powers of Nature The fifth That both Divine Daeclaration and the common Consent of Christendome do avouch to us that all the aforesaid Pagan Modes of Idolatry practised by them were in those Pagans practices of Idolatry And therefore by the third Conclusion they must be much more so in either the Jew or Christian. 5. The sixth That giving religious Worship that is to say erecting Temples building Altars Invoking making Vows and the like to what is not the supreme God though not as to him but as to some inferiour helpfull Being is manifest Idolatry This is plain out of the precedent Conclusion and may be farther confirmed from this Consideration That Idolatry was very rare amongst the Nations especially the Romans if this Mode of Idolatry be not truly Idolatry And scarce any thing will be found Idolatry amongst them but taking that to be the supreme God which is not and worshipping it for such But if any Being on this side the supreme God may be worshipped with religious Worship void of Idolatry all things may though some more non-sensically and ridiculously then others Wherefore to use any of the abovesaid Modes of Worship to what is inferiour to the supreme Being though not as to the supreme Being must be Idolatry or else the Roman Paganism it self is very rarely if at all chargeable therewith they having a Notion accurate enough of the supreme God and distinct enough from their other Deities so that unlesse they chance to worship him in an Image they will seldome be found Idolaters or rather never according to the opinion of some who say none that have the knowledge of the one true God can be capable of Idolatry 6. The seventh That to sacrifice burn Incense or make any religious Obeisance or Incurvation to an Image in any wise as to an Object of this Worship is Idolatry by Divine Declaration This is manifest out of the second Conclusion and the first as may appear at first sight For it is plainly declared in the second Precept of the Decalogue touching Images Thou shalt not bow to them nor worship them Of which undoubtedly the sense is They shall not be in any wise the Object of that Worship which thou performest in a religious way whether by Bowing down to them or by what other way soever For the second Commandment certainly is a Declaration of the mind of God touching religious Worship let the Ceremonies be what they will The eighth That to erect Temples Altars Images or to burn Incense to Saints or Angels to invoke them or make Vows to them and the like is plain Idolatry This is apparent chiefly out of the third fourth fifth and sixth Conclusions of this Chapter For the Pagans Daemons exquisitely answer to the Christians Saints and Angels in this point saving that this spiritual Fornication is a Rape upon our Saints and Angels but simple Fornication in the Heathen with their impure Daemons The ninth Religious Incurvation towards a Crucifix or the Host or any Image as to an Object and not a mere unconsidered accidental Circumstance is Idolatry This is manifest out of the seventh and eighth Conclusions But the Worship of Latria exhibited to the Host upon the opinion of Transubstantiation is Idolatry by the third and fourth 7. Conclusion the tenth To use on set purpose in religious Worship any Figure or Image onely circumstantially not objectively but so as to bow towards it or to be upon a man's knees before it with Eyes and Hands devoutly lifted up towards it but with an intention of making it in no sense any Object of this religious Worship yet if this were in a Country where men usually and professedly do it were notwithstanding for all this intention a grosse piece of Idolatry But if the whole Countrey should conspire to make this more plausible sense of those Incurvations and Postures admit we might hope it were not Idolatry yet it would be certainly a most impious and wicked Mocking of God and eluding his minde in the second Commandment that naturally implies the forbidding any Worship or Incurvation toward Images in a way of Religion and a crime as scandalous and near to Idolatry as the going into bed to
will not stick to kill his dearest Friend And finally This Idolatry is the more discernible and aggravable in the Invocation of Saints or Angels their Omnipercipiency being so extremely incredible if not impossible or ridiculous upon any ground as appears by the foregoing Conclusion 8. The sixteenth That the erecting of a symbolicall Presence with Incurvations thitherward the consecrating of Temples and Altars the making of Oblations the burning of Incense and the like were declared by the supreme God the God of Israel the manner of Worship due to him and therefore without his Concession this Mode of Worship is not to be given to any else as appears by Conclusion the ninth The seventeenth That the Pagans worshipping their Daemons though not as the supreme God by symbolicall Presences Temples Altars Sacrifices and the like become ipso facto Idolaters This is manifest from the ninth the fifteenth and the foregoing Conclusion The eighteenth Though it were admitted that there is communicated to Saints and Angels at least a terrestriall Omnipercipiency and that we had the knowledge of this Communication and so might speak to them in a civil way though unseen yet to invoke them in such Circumstances as at an Altar and in a Temple dedicated to them or at their symbolicall presence this were palpable Idolatry The truth is manifest agian from the ninth and sixteenth Conclusions 9. The nineteenth Incurvation in way of Religion towards any open or bare symbolicall Presence be it what-ever Figure or Image as to an Object is flat Idolatry in the Worship of Saints Angels and Daemons double Idolatry in the Worship of the true God single The reason hereof is resolved partly into the ninth and sixteenth Conclusions and partly into the nature of Application of Worship For externall Worship is not any otherwise to be conceived to be apply'd to a symbolicall Presence but by being directed towards it as towards an Object Wherefore if religious Incurvation be directed towards any Figure or Image as to an Object this Figure or Image necessarily receives this religious Incurvation and partakes with God if the Image be to him in it which is manifest Idolatry For the direction of our Intention here is but a Jesuiticall Juggle And therefore I will set down for Conclusion The twentieth That religious Incurvation toward a bare symbolicall Presence wittingly and conscienciously directed thither though with a mental reserve that they intend to use it merely as a Circumstance of Worship is notwithstanding real Idolatry The Reason is because an externall Action toward such a thing as is look'd upon as receptive of such an Action and has frequently received it if it be thus or thus directed will naturally conciliate the notions or respects of Action and Object betwixt these two whether we intend it or no. And it is as ridiculous to pretend that their motions or actions toward or about such a symbolicall Presence are not directed to it or conversant about it as an Object as it were for an Archer to contend that the Butt he shoots at is not the Scope or Object but a Circumstance of his Shooting and he that embraces his Friend that his Friend is not an Object but a Circumstance of his Embracing Which are Conceits quite out of the rode of all Logick See the last Conclusion of the foregoing Chapter 10. The twenty-first That the Adoration of any Object which we out of mistake conceive to be the true God made visible by hypostatical union therewith is manifest Idolatry The Reason is because Mistake does not excuse from Idolatry by Conclusion the fourth and the fifth And in this Supposition we misse of one part of the Object and the onely part that single is capable of Divine Honour For God to be disunited from this adored Object is in this case all one as to be absent For God is not considered nor intended in this act of Adoration but as united with this visible Object Which respect of Union if it fail that consideration or Intention also fails and the Worship falls upon a mere Creature In brief If out of mistake I salute some lively Statue or dead body for such or such a living man though this Man or his Soul were present and saw and heard the Salutation yet I play the fool and make my self ridiculous and am conceived not to have saluted him I would So if I doe Adoration to any Object suppose the Sun or some Magicall Statue for the true Deity visible whenas neither of them are so I play the Idolater and make my self impious and have missed of the due Object of my Adoration 11. The twenty-second That the Adoration of the Host upon the presumption that it is transubstantiated into the living Body of Christ is rank Idolatry This appears from the precedent Conclusion To which you may adde that the Romanists making Transubstantiation the true ground of their Adoration of the Host do themselves imply that without it were so their Adoration thereof would be Idolatry But that it is not so and that their Ground is false any body may be as well assured of as he can of any thing in the world and no lesse assured that they are Idolaters according to their own Supposition and Implication as Costerus indeed does most emphatically and expresly acknowledge it if they be mistaken in their Doctrine of Transubstantiation as we shall hear anon The twenty-third Conclusion That Adoration given to the Host by Protestants or any else that hold not Transubstantiation is manifest Idolatry The Reason is to be fetch'd from the nineteenth and twentieth Conclusions For it is religious Veneration towards a bare corporeall Symbol of the Divine Presence and to make the Action more aggravable towards a Symbol that has Imagery upon it and that of the person that is pretended to be worshipped thereby What can be Idolatry if this be not The twenty-fourth That the Invocation of Saints and Angels though attended with these considerations that both that Excellency we suppose in them and which makes them capable of that Honour is deemed finite and also be it as great as it will wholly derived to them from God yet it cannot for all this be excused from grosse Idolatry This is clear from the seventh eighth tenth and so on till the sixteenth Conclusion For though this Excellency be supposed finite yet if it be so great as that it is no-where to be found but in God it is his Right onely to have such Honours as suppose it And though it be deemed or conceived to be derived from God yet if it be not we give an uncommunicate Excellency to the Creature and rob God of his Right and Honour And lastly though this Excellency were communicated but yet the Communication of it unreveal'd to us it were a treasonable Presumption against the Majesty of God thus of our own head to divulge such things as may violate the peculiar Rights of his Godhead and for ought we know fill the
undeniable Principles of common Sense and Reason and of all the Arts and Sciences God has illuminated the Mind of man withall Consider the twelfth Conclusion of the above-named Treatise together with the other ten before cited Wherefore any one that is not a mere Bigott may be as assured that Transubstantiation is a mere Figment or enormous Falsehood as of any thing else in the whole world 8. From whence it will unavoidably follow and themselves cannot deny it that they are most grosse and palpable Idolaters and consequently most barbarous Murtherers in killing the innocent Servants of God for not submitting to the same Idolatries with themselves Costerus the Jesuite speaks expresly to this Point and consonantly I think to the Suppositions of the Council viz. That if their Church be mistaken in the Doctrine of Transubstantiation they ipso facto stand guilty of such a piece of Idolatry as never was before seen or known of in the world For the errours of those saith he were more tolerable who worship some golden or silver Statue or some Image of any other Materials for their God as the Heathen worshipped their Gods or a red Cloth hung upon the top of a Spear as is reported of the Laplanders or some live Animal as of old the AEgyptians did then of these that worship a bit of Bread as hitherto the Christians have done all over the world for so many hundred years if the Doctrine of Transubstantiation be not true What can be a more full and expresse acknowledgement of the gross Idolatry of the Church of Rome then this if Transubstantiation prove an Errour Then which notwithstanding there is nothing in the world more certain to all the Faculties of a man as is manifest out of what has been here said And therefore the Romanists must be grosse Idolaters from the second third fourth seventh and ninth Conclusions of the first Chapter and from the fourth fifth eighth ninth twenty-first twenty-second and twenty-fifth of the second Chapter All these Conclusions will give evidence against them that they are very notorious Idolaters 9. And therefore this being so high and so palpable a strain of Idolatry in them touching the Eucharist or the eating the Body and drinking the Bloud of Christ wherein Christ is offered by the Priest as an Oblation and the People feed upon him as in a Feast upon a Sacrifice which is not done without Divine Adoration done to the Host according to the precept of their Church This does hugely confirm our sense of the eating of things offered unto Idols in the Epistles to the Churches in Pergamus and in Thyatira this worshipping of the Host being so expresly acknowledged by the Pope and his Clergy and in that high sense of Cultus Latriae which is due to God alone And therefore it is very choicely and judiciously perstringed by the Spirit of Prophecy above any other Modes of their Idolatry it being such a grosse and confessed Specimen thereof and such as there is no Evasion for or Excuse Hoc teneas vultus mutantem Protea â—odo CHAP. IV. The grosse Idolatry of the Romanists in the Invocation of the Saints even according to the allowance of the Council of Trent and the authorized practice of that Church 1. BUT we will fall also upon those Modes of Idolatry wherein the Church of Rome may seem less bold though indeed this one that is so grosse is so often and so universally repeated every-where in the Roman Church that by this alone though we should take notice of nothing farther Idolatry may seem quite to have overspred her like a noisome Leprosy But how-ever we shall proceed and first to their Invocation of Saints Touching which the Council of Trent declares this Doctrine expresly Sanctos utique unà cum Christo regnantes Orationes suas pro hominibus offerre bonúmque atque utile esse suppliciter eos invocare ob beneficia impetranda à Deo per Filium ejus Jesum Christum ad eorum orationes operam auxiliúmque confugere Where Invocation of Saints is plainly allow'd and recommended and besides their praying for us or offering up our Prayers to God it is plainly imply'd that there are other Aids and Succours they can afford if they be supplicated that is invoked with most humble and prostrate Devotion And the pretending that this is all but the way of procuring those good things we want from God the first Fountain and that through his Son Christ that makes the Saints the more exactly like the Pagans Dii medioxumi and the Daemons that negotiated the affairs of men with the highest Deity 2. I say then that though they went no farther then thus even this is down-right Idolatry which the Council of Trent thus openly owns and consequently the whole Church of Rome as appears from the third fourth fifth sixth and eighth Conclusions of the first Chapter as also by the fifth seventh eighth tenth eleventh twelfth thirteenth fourteenth fifteenth and twenty-fourth of the second But if we examine those Prayers that are put up to the Saints their Invocation is still the more unexcusable 3. Wherefore looking to the publick Practice of the Church of Rome authorized by the Popes themselves the Invocation of a Saint does not consist in a mere Ora pro nobis as people are too forward to phansy that the state of the Question though the mere invoking of them to pray for us would be Idolatry as is already proved but which is insinuated in the Council it self there are other more particular Aids and Succours that they implore of them and some such as it is proper for none but God or Christ to give Such as Protection from the Devil Divine Graces and the Joys of Paradise But as the things they ask of the Saints are too big for them to be the Disposers of so the Compellations of the Virgin Mary especially are above the nature of any Creature Whence this Invocation of Saints will appear a most grosse and palpable Mode of Idolatry in that Church As I shall make manifest out of the following Examples taken out of such pieces of Devotion as are not mutter'd in the corners of their Closets but are publickly read or sung with Stentorian Voices in their very Churches I will onely give the Reader a tast of this kinde of their Idolatry for it were infinite to produce all we might 4. And first to begin with the smaller Saints as indeed they are all to be reckoned in comparison of the blessed Virgin to whom therefore they give that Worship which they call Hyperdulia as they give Dulia to the rest of the Saints and Latria to God alone and to Christ as being God That Prayer to S. Cosmas and S. Damian is plainly a Petition to them to keep us from all Diseases as well of Soul as of Body that we may attain to the life of the Spirit and live in Grace here and be made partakers of Heaven hereafter O Medici
whereby they would support their Determination in this Point viz. the Authority of the second Council of Nice held about the year 780 to omit that long before this time the Church had become asymmetral which yet is a very substantial Consideration I shall onely return this brief answer The God of Israel which is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has given this expresse command to his Church for ever Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven Image thou shalt not bow down to it nor worship it But the second Council of Nice says Thou mayst and shalt bow down to the Image of Christ of the blessed Virgin and of the rest of the Saints Now whether it be fit to believe and obey God or men judge ye I might adde farther men so silly and frivolous in the defense of their Opinion so false and fabulous in the Allegation of their Authorities and the recitall of miraculous Stories as Chemnitius has proved at large in his Examen of the Council of Trent 2. I will give an Instance or two No man lighteth a candle and putteth it under a bushell therefore the Images of the Saints are to be placed on the Altars and Wax-candles lighted up before them in due honour to them Again Psalm 16. But to the Saints that are on the Earth But the Saints are in Heaven say they therefore their Images ought to be on the Earth c. As for the Miracles done by Images as their Speaking the Healing of the sick the Revenging of the wrong done to them the Distilling of rorid drops of balsame to heal the wounded sick or lame their Recovering water into a dry Well and the like it were too tedious to recite these Figments But that of the Image of the Virgin to whom her Devotionist spake when he took leave of her and was to take a long Journey intreating her to look to her Candle which he had lighted up for her till his return I cannot conceal For the Story says the same Candle was burning six months after at the return of her Devoto An example of the most miraculous Prolonger that ever I met withall before in all my days Such an Image of the Virgin would save poor Students a great deal in the expense of Candles if the thing were but lawfull and feasible 3. From these small hints a man may easily discover of what Authority this second Council of Nice ought to be though they had not concluded so point-blank against the Word of God But because that Clause in this Paragraph of the Council I have recited Id quod Conciliorum praesertim verò secundae Nicaenae Synodi c. may as well aim at the determination of what these Fathers mean by that debitus honor reverentia which they declare to be due to the Images of Christ and the Saints as confirm their own Conclusion by the Authority of that Nicene Council we will take notice also what a kinde of Honour and Reverence to Images the Nicene Council did declare for and in short it is this That they are to be worshipped and adored and to be honoured with Wax-candles and by the smoaking of Incense or Perfumes and the like Which smells rankly enough in all conscience of Idolatry as Grotius himself upon the Decalogue cannot but acknowledge But this is not all The Invocation of Saints their Mediation and propitiating God for us for adoring their Images healing of Diseases and other Aids and Helps besides Ora pro nobis are manifestly involved in the Worship of these Images according to that Nicene Council 4. And truly according to the Collections of Photius in Justellus one would think that they meant the Cultus Latriae to the Image of Christ they using the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if that Worship which was done to the Image passed through to Christ himself which would not be sutable to him if it were not Divine Worship And where that word is not used yet the sense makes hugely for it As in this Paragraph touching the second Council of Nice according to Photius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This seventh Synod saith he that is to say the second of Nice with joint suffrages hath established and ratify'd the worshipping of the Image of Christ for the honour and reverence of him that is expressed by it this Worship and Honour being done in such manner as when we approach the holy Symbols or Types of our most holy and Divine Worship for the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For we do not stop at them nor restrain our Worship and Devotion to them nor are we divided toward heterogeneous and different Scopes or Objects but by that Service and Worship of them that appears divided are we carried up devoutly and undividedly unto the one and indivisible Deity Whereby it is plainly declared that that very Worship which passes to the Deity is done towards the Image of Christ first or jointly as being one and the same undivided Worship in truth and reality as also that this Worship is that Worship which is called Latria and is due to the highest God onely 5. But that religious Worship is done to the Images of all the Saints seems imply'd in what comes afterwards where it is said that this second Council of Nice which Photius calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That this Council has not onely established and appointed that the Image of Christ should be honoured and worshipped but the holy Images of the Virgin Mary and of all the Saints according to the excellency and venerability of their Prototypes For even by these are we carried up into a certain unitive and conjunctive vision and thereby are vouchsafed that divine and supernatural conjunction or contact with the highest of all desirables that is God himself 6. Can any thing more inflame the Souls of men with that mysticall lust after Idols then the Doctrines of this Nicene Synod For as for the Image of Christ the same Devotion and Worship is done to that which is done to God himself And for the Images of the Virgin Mary and the rest of the Saints though that Worship is allotted them onely that is proportionable to their Prototypes yet they are worshipped such a way as that thereby while we adhere to their Images or Statues we are declared to be made fit for and to be vouchsafed a tactual Union with God himself What Philtrum more effectual to raise up that Idolomania that being mad and love-sick after Images and Idols then this What can inrage their Affections more towards Idolatry then to phansie that while they worship Idols and cling about dead Statues that very individual act and therefore it cannot be too intense is that wherewith they are united to and lie in the very Embraces of the ever-living and true God 7. The sense of the Synod is according to the representation of Photius that we worship and unite our selves with God as well in the worshipping
the Images of the Virgin and of other Saints as in the worshipping of the Image of Christ. So that all is religious Worship and consequently grosse Idolatry it being done to Stocks and Stones and such like senslesse Objects For the drift of all Idolatry is when it is questioned and craftily defended that through the Worship of Daemons and Images they reach at the Worship of and the joyning their Devotion to the first and highest Godhead Wherefore the Council of Trent declaring with the second Council of Nice that is to say the blinde leading the blinde they have both fallen into this dreadfull Pit of Idolatry CHAP. IX The meaning of the Doctrine of the Council of Trent touching the Worship of Images more determinately illustrated from the general Practice of the Roman Church and Suffrage of their Popes whereby it is deprehended to be still more coursly and Paganically Idolatrous 1. BUT it may be it may give more satisfaction to some to know what is the Church of Rome's own sense of this Honor debitus she declares ought to be done to the Images of Christ and the Saints Putting off a man's Hat and lying prostrate before them the Council does not stick to instance in by the bye But because the Council calls this neither Dulia nor Hyperdulia nor Latria some will it may be be ready to shuffle it off with the interpretation of but a civil Complement to these Images or their Prototypes But since the Council of Trent has declared nothing farther what can be a more certain Interpreter of their meaning then the continued Custome of their Church and the sense of such Doctours as have been even sainted for their Eminency as Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure who both of them have declared that the Image of Christ is to be worshipped with the Worship of Latria the same that Christ is worshipped with 2. And Azorius the Jesuite affirms that it is the constant Opinion of the Theologers their own he means you may be sure that the Image is to be honoured and worshipped with the same Honour and Worship that he is whose Image it is Which is not unlike that in the Council of Nice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the foregoing Citation But that they are all capable of religious Worship the Council of Trent it self as well as Bellarmine and others if not all the Theologers of that Church does plainly acknowledge in that it determines for their Invocation which is competible to no invisible Power but the Godhead it self Wherefore it is manifest that their Images are worshipped with religious Worship also 3. But we shall make still the clearer judgement thereof if we consider the Consecration of these Images which the Council of Trent declares are to be worshipped For the Consecration and Worshipping of them makes them perfectly as the Idol-Gods of the Heathen as Octavius jearingly speaks of the Heathen Gods that is their Idols in Minucius Felix Ecce funditur fabricatur scalpitur nondum Deus est Ecce plumbatur construitur erigitur nec adhuc Deus est Ecce ornatur consecratur oratur tunc postremò Deus est Behold it is clothed or adorned it is consecrated and prayed unto then at length it becomes a God And if this will doe it the Church of Rome's Images will prove as good Idol-Gods as any of them all 4. Chemnitius recites some forms of Consecration I will cull out onely those of the Images of the blessed Virgin and of S. John That of the Virgin is this Sanctify O God this Image of the blessed Virgin that it may aid and keep safe thy faithfull people that Thundrings and Lightnings if they grow too terrible and dangerous may be quickly expelled thereby and that the Inundations of Rain the Commotions of civil War and Devastations by Pagans may be suppressed by the presence thereof Which is most effectual to make all men come and hurcle under the protection of the Virgin 's Image in such dangers as under the Wings of the great Jehovah This is hugely like the consecrated Telesms of the Pagans But let us hear the form of the Consecration of the Image of S. John also Grant O God that all those that behold this Image with Reverence and pray before it may be heard in whatsoever Streights they are Let this Image be the holy Expulsion of Devils the conciliating the presence and assistence of Angels the protection of the faithfull and that the Intercession of this Saint may be very powerfull and effectuall in this place What a mighty Charm is this to make the Souls of the feeble to hang about these Images as if their Presence were the Divine Protection it self 5. These Chemnitius recites out of the Pontificall he perused But the Rituale Romanum published first by the command of Paulus Quintus and again authorized by Pope Urban the eighth will doe our businesse sufficiently they being both since the Council of Trent and therefore by the Exposition of these Popes we may know what that debitus Honor is which the Tridentine Fathers mention as that which ought to be done to the Images of Christ the blessed Virgin or any other Saint For the Consecration of their Images runs thus Grant O God that whosoever before this Image shall diligently and humbly upon his knees worship and honour thy onely-begotten Son or the blessed Virgin according as the Image is that is a-consecrating or this glorious Apostle or Martyr or Confessor or Virgin that he may obtain by his or her Merits and Intercession Grace in this present life and eternall Glory hereafter So that the Virgin and other Saints are fellow-distributers of Grace and Glory with Christ himself to their Supplicants before their Images and that upon their own Merits and for this Service done to them in kneeling and pouring out their Prayers before their Statues or symbolicall Presences What greater Blasphemy and Idolatry can be imagined Ornatur consecratur oratur tunc postremò fit Deus that is to say The Image is pray'd before but the Daemon pray'd unto There is no more in Paganism it self And yet by the Pope's own Exposition this is the debitus Honor that is owing to the Images of the Saints Consider the latter end of the last Conclusion of the first Chapter and the forms of Invocation in the fourth and fifth as also the eighteenth Conclusion of the second Chapter 6. This is all plain and expresse according to the Authority of their Church And that besides their Adoration and Praying before thâ—se Images which considering the Postures of the Supplicant and the Image is as much praying to them as the Heathens will acknowledge done to theirs there are also Wax-candles burning before them and the Oblation of Incense or perfuming them Feasts likewise Temples and Altars to the same Saints and the carrying them in Procession which was the guize of ancient Paganism is so well known that I need not quote any Authours And that this is the