Selected quad for the lemma: saint_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
saint_n	call_v	church_n	dedicate_v	1,670	5	10.6327	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30890	John Barclay his vindication of the intercession of saints, the veneration of relicks and miracles, against the sectaries of the times Book II. Chap. VII. Englished by a person of quality. With allowance.; Parænesis ad sectarios. Book 2, Chapter 7. English.	Barclay, John, 1582-1621.	1688 (1688)	Wing B716; ESTC R215790	13,055	23

expect Help and desire it Thou wilt see in fine that all these things are as right and sincere approv'd by Miracles These Reliques we either deposite under the Altars or lay up in Beautified Coffers And both these according to Antient Custom St. Hierom against Vigilantius has these words Is it therefore ill done of the Roman Bishop to offer Sacrifices to our Lord over the Venerable Bones as we esteem them of St. Peter and St. Paul who are Dead though in thy Opinion 't is only useless Dust And in the same place he says of the same Vigilantius He grieves that the Reliques of the Martyrs are cover'd with costly Vails and not rather bound up in Rags or Hair-cloth We go also to the places where these Reliques are kept there to Pray to GOD or speak to the Saints and falling down we Kiss their Sepulchres These things also we have from Antient Institution For St. Hierom calls Vigilantius a Moster deserving to be Banish'd to the farthest parts of the Earth for daring to write these words The Souls of the Martyrs therefore love their Bodies and hover about them and are always present lest if an Orator should perhaps come they being absent might not hear him Now who can believe either that Vigilantius would have written those things had it not been at that time usual with the Christians to crave the Martyrs Intercession at the Places where their Reliques were reserv'd or that the most Learned St. Hierom would have been so highly offended with Vigilantius for scoffing at this Practice had not he who was educated in the Church and throughly vers'd in Antiquity well known that this was Piously to GOD's Honour and with the Churches Approbation perform'd by Christians The same St. Hierom in the Life of St. Hilarion writes thus of one Constantia whom he calls A most Holy Woman She was wont to watch whole Nights at his St. Hilarion's Sepulchre and there to Discourse with him as if he were present to hear her Prayers And St. Augustine in his Treatise of the City of GOD lib. 22. ch 8. relates that one Pauladia was by a very great Miracles Cur'd of a most dreadful Disease who says he Went to make her Prayers to the Holy Martyr St. Stephen We believe in fine That at the presence of such Reliques the Devils are vex'd and tormented Nor mayst thou therefore call us simple and credulous Coxcombs For in this we have the Church for our Mistress and the most Antient Fathers for our Authors Was the Emperor Constantine says St. Hierom against Vigilantius guilty of Sacriledge in Translating to Constantinople the Holy Reliques of St. Andrew St. Luke and St. Timothy in whose presence the Devils roar There is a remarkable Passage in St. Augustin's 137 Epistle to the Clergy and People of Hippo which I will for thy sake O Sectary here transcribe GOD indeed who created all things is every where being contain'd or included in no place and he must by all true Worshipers be Worship'd in Spirit and Truth that hearing in Secret he may also Justify and Crown in Secret. Nevertheless as to those things which are visibly known to men who can search into his Counsel why these Miracles are Wrought in some places and not in others For the Sanctity of the place where the Body of Blessed Felix of Nola is Buried is known to many whether I desir'd that they to wit Boniface the Priest accus'd of an hainous Crime together with his Accuser should go because from hence it may more easily and Faithfully be written to us what shall be manifested in either of them For we know that in Milain at the Sepulchres of the Saints where the Devils wonderfully and Terribly Confess acertain Thief who came to that place with a full intent to deceive by Swearing a Falshood was forc'd to confess his Theft and restore what he had stoln The Matter being sufficiently asserted by such eminent Persons by so Antient a Practice and Belief I shall conclude with the Opinion of Gennadius of Marseilles which he himself thus delivers among the Ecclesiastical Decrees Lib. de Ecclesiast Dogmat. cap. 73. We believe that the Bodies of the Saints and especially the Reliques of the Blessed Martyrs are most sincerely to be Honour'd as Members of CHRIST and that the Churches call'd by their Names are with most Pious Affection and Faithful Devotion to be frequented as Holy Places Dedicated to Divine Worship Whosoever shall oppose this Sentence is not to be thought a Christian but an Eunomian and Vigilantian Tell me Sectary if Gennadius had liv'd in this Age would he not have added you to Eunomians and Vigilantians and said He is not to be thought a Christian but a Puritan or Protestant Matters are so connex'd that whilst we assert one thing we at the same time Plead for another For you deny all Belief to Miracles which you say to have seen frequent in the Churches Infancy but that now the Christian Faith being Establish'd they are ceas'd But consider O Sectary that this Faith was in St. Augustin's time receiv'd and settled throughout the World And that the frequency of Miracles was then ceas'd by which the Foundations of the Church in the Apostles time Encreas'd and yet He as thou seest acknowledges that Miracles were wrought in his Age especially at the Reliques of the Saints nor that only in these Places we have already cited but in many others also Likewise says he Lib. 1. Retract cap. 13. Whereas I said in my Book concerning true Religion That these Miracles were not permitted to continue to our Times lest the Soul should always seek visible things and Mankind now grow cold by their frequency which was heretofore inflam'd by their Novelty This indeed is true for they do not now when Hands are laid on the Baptiz'd so receive the Holy Ghost as to speak with the Tongues of all Nations Nor are the Sick now Cur'd by the Shaddow CHRIST's Preachers as they pass along The same may be said of such other things as were then done and have since manifestly ceas'd But what I said is not so to be understood that no Miracles should be now believ'd to be done in the Name of CHRIST For I my self when I writ that very Book well knew that a Blind-man in the City of Millain receiv'd his Sight at the Bodies of certain Martyrs there with several other Miracles of which there are even in our Times so many wrought that we can neither know them all nor reckon those which we know In the same Book ch 14. he says In another place having related the Miracles which our Lord JESVS did when he was here in the Flesh I added these words You will say why are not these things done now And answered Because they would not move if they were not wonders and they would not be wonders if they were frequent Now this I said because neither all those nor yet so great Miracles are now wrought and not because there are now none at all He has related also at large the Miracles of his Age in his Tract of the City of GOD lib. 22. cap. 8. What how great and how many are the Miracles there recited And those indeed certain clear done in his own Memory and of which he himself was for the most part also a Witness Nor did he commit to Writing all that he then knew to have happen'd being in a manner overcome with their Multitude For he says The desire I have of finishing according to my Promise this my Treatise permits me not to mention all I know of this kind and without doubt most of my Friends who shall happen to read what I have here set down will be sorry that I have omitted so many which they know as well as I. Whose pardon I now beg desiring them to reflect what a Toil it would be for me to do that which the Work I have here undertaken will by no means allow For to say nothing of others should I but set down the Miraculous Cures wrought by 〈◊〉 Martyr the most glorious St. Stephen in the Town of Calama as also in our own it would require the Writing of many Books and yet they would not all be collected Why therefore should our Age be thought destitute of Miracles What use was there then for them which may not happen now What Scripture what word of GOD banishes from us these VVorks of the Almighty If thou have regard to those frequent and as I may say daily Miracles by which the Church was in her beginning asserted they were already as St. Augustin confesses ceas'd in his time but as for such as are more seldom though no less certain neither was that Age nor is ours without them But 't is no wonder you would have those Miracles remov'd from the Minds and Eyes of Men by which your Cause is overthrown since there are none wrought amongst you but such by which you may learn that you are in Error since you are Enemies to Holy Relicks at which CHRIST often does these Supernatural Works since lastly as many Miracles as are wrought amongst us are so many Thunderbolts of Almighty GOD by which he confounds your Heresy The End of the Seventh Chapter James Stuart the 1st

this Place be more over Venerable for the Name of some Martyr the Affection of the Rememberer recommends by its Prayers the beloved Soul to the same Martyr which Affection shewn to the Deceased by their most dear and faithful Friends undoubtedly profits those who whilst they were living in the Body deserv'd that such things should after this Life be profitable to them There is in this no Exclamation no Apostrophe These Fathers sincerely and plainly declare their own and the Churches sense I would here says my Author willingly Address my Discourse to the Almoner of the most Serene King of Great Britain Him does the King him do many others believe and he is so often in fault as he causes others to offend Let him therefore consider how great his Error is in denying it to be St. Augustin's Opinion that the Martyrs should be Invocated In his answer to the Apology of the most Illustrious Cardinal Bellarmine he speaks thus Now we consent to St. Augustine that the Body of the Protomartyr should be conveniently Honour'd since Almighty GOD was pleas'd to work some Miracles by it But that he wrought those Miracles by the Invocation of Saints is an Addition of the Cardinals own For the Martyrs are not Invocated by St. Augustine Nay the Martyrs are Invocated by St. Augustine unless we refuse to believe Augustine himself For what can be plainer than that Sentence 'T is not to be doubted but the Affection of the Faithful profits the Deceased when they recommend their Souls to the Martyrs Why do you persuade the King why do you persuade your self otherwise I call upon the Martyrs whom you will not have call'd upon I willingly with Reverence beseech them that they would obtain for you from our Lord this Faith which you reject and that the last Night may not close your Eyes before you have abjur'd the darkness of Heresy in the Light of the Church But we are commanded in the Scriptures to have recourse to GOD. Why then should we Address our selves to Saints O brave new Wisdom Was the Church Ignorant of this Did not the Fathers know it Nay we are admonish'd that we may very much be assisted by the Prayers of good Men and when we repair to the Saints we go to GOD. For far be it from us to expect any thing from the Saints but what they shall obtain for us of our Lord. They can do nothing of themselves We desire nothing from them but their Prayers And why should St. Peter and St. Paul famous for the Purity of their Lives and their triumphant Constancy at their Death be less prevalent Advocates with Almighty GOD than such contemptible Wretches as you or I who are daily guilty of new Offences What shall I say of the Angel whom GOD has plac'd as a Guardian over every one of us Would'st thou have an Assistant of so great Power and so great Splendour be Unsaluted Wouldst not thou of thy own accord recommend thy self to him to whom thou art committed by Almighty GOD. But some of you indeed deny others are ignorant that there are any such Spirits present with us I have seen an Aged Sectary who though fierce and daily disputing against us yet deny'd he had ever before heard it to be the Papists Opinion that there was an Angel Assign'd for the keeping of every particular Person Nor is to be doubted said he but this Fiction had its Original from the Domestick and Familiar Gods of the Gentils Forbear Sectary thy ill Language We have this Belief from the Holy Scriptures and not from the Fooleries of the Heathen For that People and Provinces have their Angels who take care of their Affairs thou findst in Daniel Chap. 10. Where Michael is said to be Prince of the Jews another of the Persians and another of the Grecians And that such Spirits are given to every particular Person we are Taught in St. Matthew Chap. 18. ver 10. Where our Saviour says See that he despise not one of these little ones for I say to you that their Angels in Heaven do always see the Face of my Father which is in Heaven Upon which place St. Hierom in his Commentary on St. Matthew has these Words Great is the Dignity of Souls that every one of them from its first Being should have an Angel appointed for its Guardian The same Father on the Death of Paula says I take to witness our Lord JESVS and his Saints and the very Angel himself who was Keeper and Assistant of this admirable Woman that I speak nothing Partially after the custom of Flatterers But you complain of the Veneration and Respect we give the Saints Because GOD alone say you is to be Worshiped And St. Paul in his Epistle to the Colossians chap. 11. v. 18. Forbids Christians to be seduc'd in the Humility and Religion of Angels In fine the Angel which shew'd St. John the Vision of the Apocalypse suffer'd not himself to be Worship'd by him These Objections O Sectaries are frequently in your Mouths and as often and as often answer'd by Us. To Worship is a Word of dubious signification Some Worship is due to GOD alone Whoever bestows this on Man Angel or Saint can never avoid being guilty of Idolatry There is another Worship or Reverence Pay'd by the Inferior to the Superior without either believing him to be GOD or Venerating him as such With this all Princes Kings Angels and Saints are to be respected according to their Degrees and Dignities The one as the Images of GOD on Earth the other as the Domesticks of GOD in Heaven And that thou mayst not doubt but the Word Worship is in the Scriptures apply'd to those Honours which may be Lawfully given to Creatures thou findest in written of Abraham Gen. 23. v. 7. And Abraham Arose and Worshipped Adoravit the People of the Land to wit the Children of Heth. And of Nathan the Prophet 't is said 3 Kings ch 1. v. 23. And when he was come in before the King and had Worship'd adorasset him with his Face to the Ground To the Words of the Apostle forbiding the Humility and Religion of Angels St. Chrysostom has long since answer'd in his seventh Homily on the Epistle to the Colossians telling us That by these words is forbidden the Heresie which reputed Angels for Inferior Gods as if by them and not by CHRIST we must be reconcil'd and have Access to the Father Which Heresie was by the Antients attributed to Simon Magus Nor has St. Augustin more slightly answer'd the Argument you bring out of the Apocalypse who in his 51st Question on Genesis says that from the Majesty of the Expressions which the Angel us'd for he had before ch 1. v. 11. said in the Person of our Lord I am the first and the last c. St. John thought 't was Christ and not an Angel that spake to him And that the Angel therefore forbad St. John to give him the Honour which was