due to Christ. Others and those very great men thus expound it that St. John err'd not in Worshipping the Angel but that the Angel refus'd to receive this Honour from St. John who was an Apostle a Prophet and most dearly Beloved by JESUS CHRIST So that there was on both sides an Holy Humility both in the Giver and in the Refuser of this Worship Now this indeed is both easie to Prove and not hard to Believe For can we imagine St. John to have been Ignorant that GOD alone and no Angel is to be Worship'd with Latria or Divine Honour Or can it be thought that he understood not with what sort of Respect Angels were to be Venerated who was not only CHRIST's Apostle but his Beloved who leaning on the Breast of our Lord at his last Supper was there taught the Mysteries of his Divinity to whom our Saviours Mother was recommended as his own and who at that very time when the Mysteries of the Apocalypse were reveal'd to him in the Island of Pathmos had been above threescore years Preaching the Gospel through the World Canst thou conceit that the Christians were till that time Ignorant whether or after what manner Angels are to be Reverenc'd or that the very Apostle knew not this who Teaching Preaching and writing the Gospel was believ'd by all Christians If therefore St. John offer'd the Worship of Latria to the Angel undoubtedly he believ'd him not to be an Angel but our Lord. But if he knew him to be an Angel 't is certain both that he gave him not Divine Honour and that 't is lawful in such Manner to Worship the Angels as he then did For 't were ridiculous to say that our Lord had not till then reveal'd to Christians what sort of Respect should be given to Angels whom before that time all the Apostles except St. John alone were by Martyrdom taken out of the World. But let us suppose what is most absurd that St. John the Apostle knew not what no Christian ought at that time to have been ignorant of to wit what Reverence was to be shewn to Angels 't was yet at least sufficient for him to have been once instructed in it by the Angel. But we find him notwithstanding again attempting the same For when as we have it Chap. 19. St. John fell down to worship the Angel refus'd it with these words See thou do it not for I am thy fellow Servant Nevertheless we find St. John again chap. 21 falling down to worship him and again hearing the same words from the Angel. Was St. John so ignorant of CHRIST's Laws Dost thou think he had so soon forgot what he had but a little before learnt of the Angel Nay this repeated falling down of St. John at the Angels feet sufficiently shews that this pious veneration of his Friends and Messengers is not unacceptable to Almighty GOD. We therefore together with the Church and the Psalmist sing But to me O GOD thy Friends are become honourable exceedingly We admine their happiness we desire their help But thou O Sectary shouldst thou meet some Holy Martyr or some one of the Order of Prophets or of the Choirs of the Angels shouldst thou see him shouldst thou speak to him what Countenance wouldst thou put on what Words what Gesture wouldst thou use For however thou deny'st that they dst now appear in this manner yet wilt thou never deny but that they may so do if Almighty GOD shall see it fit Wouldst thou act with such a Spirit as if he were thy equal Or wouldst thou not rather shew him Honour that is in the sense of which we here speak worship him For certainly thou who art often mov'd with human Greatness couldst not forbear venerating that Dignity which is far more Yublime than all Earthly Honour Why therefore may we not honour them whom wa see not yet we know them to be and to be happy united to GOD the Friends of GOD triumphing in a most secure Immortality Why should it be unlawful to have the same Respect for those we see not which we may lawfully have for those we see Nor are you contented only to take away all Honour from the Souls of the Blessed but you make war also on their Bodies I tremble to relate how many Reliques of Saints you have scatter'd in the wind thrown into the water consum'd with Fire how often you have in scorn pluckt their sacred Limbs out of the Gold and Gems in which they were inclos'd to expose them to Contempt Posterity will lament their loss we are asham'd for the Infamy of our Age. For what caus'd all this Impiety but that the Devils who set up Heresie no less hate the Sanctity of Reliques by which they have been often tormented than the Antiochian Appollo did the Bones of the Martyr Babilas near which he was prohibited to give his Oracles I know what you would say to wit that our Idolatry could not be restrain'd but by the Destruction of those things which we worshipt Let us see what Idolatry this was which must be cur'd by so desperate a Remedy or how we have in the Veneration of Reliques exceeded the Custom of the most Primitive Church If any Reliques of Saints are removed from one place to another we make the Streets ring with Hymns and Psalms the action is performed with a great Conflux of People who come to see and reverence these holy Remains We diligently and devoutly apply our Handkerchiefs and Garments to the Coffin or Bier in or on which these Sacred Bones are laid that secret Blessings may flow upon us We divide their Bodies and Bones into Parts that more may be partakers of their Happiness and Help We lay up these Reliques in the Churches and under the Altars from whence the most holy Sacrifice is dispens'd or enchase them in the richest Metals and Jewels We often repair to them supplicating Almighty GOD by these Pledges of his Friends and sometimes also craving the Intercession of them whose Remains we behold We prostrate our selves and kiss this venerable Dust which heretofore serv'd Almighty GOD and shall hereafter rise again be chang'd and reign with CHRIST We believe that the Devils tremble and are perplext at these holy Bodies and that GOD is sometimes pleas'd to assert by Miracles as well this our Piety as the Honour of Reliques I have the more at large declar'd this kind of Worship that thou O Sectary mightst know Christians are not asham'd of their Profession We publickly own that these things are done and carefully observ'd by us All which if we shall demonstrate to have exactly practis'd in the first Ages of the Church what remains but that thou shouldst wonder at thy having been so bewitcht by Heresie as to account this pious Custom of thy Ancestors for monstrous How great Honour was by the Antients given to Reliques thou mayst learn from Socrates lib. 3. cap. 16. from Theodoret lib. 3. cap. 9. and from Sozomen
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
lib. 5. cap. 18. There thou wilt read what a concourse of Christians there was when in the Reign of Julian the Apostate the Bones of St. Babilas were to be remov'd from the Suburb Daphne to Antioch and that together with the Women and Children rejoycing and singing Psalms they carried the Coffin Yea that Every one of them going before began to dance and that there were present at the Solemnity Men and Women young Men and Maids Old Men and Children Evagrius lib. 1. cap. 16. writes that the Bones of St. Ignatius were at the Command of Theodosius the Great Translated with exceeding Honour to Antioch For which cause says he there is even to our Age kept a Solemn Feast of common Joy. See how great and how much approv'd this Veneration was of which 't was thought fit to keep an Annual Commemoration Thou findst in St. Hierom against Vigilantius that the Bones of the Prophet Samuel were in his time brought from Palastine to Constantinople by the Command of Arcadius All the Bishops says he carried in a golden Vessel those Reliques wrapt in Silk He adds That the People of all the Churches went to meet the Holy Reliques which they received with as much Joy as if they had seen the Prophet present and alive So that from Palastine even to Chalcedon the Swarms of People were joyn'd together sounding forth with one voice the Praises of CHRIST With what Reverence also the Bones of St. Chrysostom were receiv'd when they were thirty five years after his Decease Translated to Constantinople thou hast related by Theodoret a Writer of that Age who in his Ecclesiastical History lib. 5. cap. 36. says thus The Faithful Assembly of Men making the Sea as it were a Continent by the Multitude of their Ships cover'd with the Lights the mouth of the Bosphorus lying near Propontis Nor mayst thou say that these were as Funural Honours which were in this manner given to the Saints and that Reliques were not in that Age remov'd unless it were from one Monument to another Nay Sectary these Sacred Pledges were for the avoiding of danger and the more Solemn Invocating of Almighty GOD brought forth of the Churches and sometimes carried even into the Camp. Evagrius lib. 1. cap. 13. relates That he saw the Head of St. Simeon the Monk sent to Philippicus the Emperors Son-in-Law who desir'd that some Reliques of Saints should be sent him To the end he might more successfully perform his Military Expeditions in the East And hence you see that 't is neither new nor any way Injurious to the Saints if their Reliques are divided into parts that they may be distributed to many For that Simeon was not Beheaded but having dy'd a Natural Death his Body was by the Christians not Disrespectfully torn in Pieces but Reverently and Piously divided Thou readest moreover in St. Augustin de Civit. Dei lib. 22. cap. 8. that the Reliques of St. Stephen were dispers'd in several places up and down Africk as at the Tibilitan Waters in the Castle of Synes at Calama Audituras Vzali and Hippo That they were Reverenc'd that Miracles were every where wrought at them By the Martyr by the Martyrs help at the Martyrs Request These are the Words of St. Augustin A person of very great Quality but alas a Sectary in whose Presence there was accidentally some Discourse concerning this so great Consent of our Ancestors in Venerating Reliques desirous not to dissolve but captiously to elude this Argument said that these were some Remains of the Idolatry then newly Abolish'd at which the Bishops of those times conniv'd that they might not seem altogether to oppose the Peoples Inclination O whoever thou art acknowledge the Vitiousness of Heresie which forces her Patrons on these Absurdities For if this had its Original from the Evil of Idolatry and not from Christian Vertue why did the Bishops themselves not only suffer it in the People but Instruct them in it as a part of Religious Piety Why did they refer the Rites and Solemnities of this Veneration to Almighty GOD as their Author Why also did GOD assert these things by Miracles For thou mayst hear no Unlearned nor Ignorant Person but the great St. Augustin who in his Confessions lib. 9. cap. 7. says thus Then didst thou in a Vision discover to thy aforemention'd Prelate St. Ambrose in what place lay conceal'd the Bodies of thy Holy Mortyrs St. Protasius and St. Gervasius which thou hadst for so many years reserv'd uncorrupted in Secret that thou mightst seasonably bring them forth to restrain a Feminine but Royal Fury to wit of Justina Augusta Mother to Valentinian who was an Arian and a great Enemy to the Catholicks For when these Bodies being digg'd up and brought forth were with fitting Honour Translated to Ambrose 's Cathedral not only those who were tormented with unclean Spirits as the same Devils confess'd were Cur'd but a certain Citizen also well known in the City who had ben many years blind having enquir'd and being told the Cause of the Multitudes rejoycing started up on a sudden and desir'd his Guide to lead him thither Whether being brought he besought Admission to touch with an Hankerchief the Bier of thy Saints whose Death was Precious in thy Sight Which he had no sooner done and put it to his Eyes but they were presently opened The same St. Augustin in his Treatise of the City of GOD lib. 22. cap. 8. has these words When Bishop Projectus brought the Reliques of the most glorious Martyr St. Stephen to the Tibilitan Waters there was a great Meeting and Flocking of the People to that place in Honour and Memory of the Saint There it happen'd that a certain Blind-woman begg'd she might be led to the Bishop as he was carrying those Holy Pledges She gave him some Flowers which she had brought along with her They were again return'd to her She put them to her Eyes and immediatly saw All the Company being in a maze she joyfully led the way alone having now no need of any one to guide her In the same place he relates many very great Miracles and as he says well known to himself wrought in several places at the Reliques of St. Stephen Amongst the rest five rais'd from the Dead some of which carri'd to the Reliques whilst to others their Garments having first touch'd the Reliques were apply'd to them after their Deaths How would ye O Sectaries hiss at these Stories related in the same stile and after the same manner were they Penn'd by any Writer of these Times when as now through Veneration to so great an Author ye Blush at them Recollect thy self O Sectary and thou wilt see that the Bones of the Martyrs were taken up not through any Idolatrous Custom but by the Command of Almighty GOD. Thou wilt see that 't is not only a lawful but also a Pious Action to apply Clothes and Handkerchiefs to their Bodies and from such an Application both to
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 Printed by Mary Thompson at the Entrance into Old-Spring-Garden near Charing-Cross And Sold by Matthew Turner at the Holy-Lamb in Holbourn And John Lane at the Corner of Wild-street 1688. CONCERNING THE Intercession of SAINTS The Veneration of RELICKS AND MIRACLES BOOK II. CHAP. VII T IS one and the same Church of GOD which Triumphing in Heaven enjoys the Fruits of its Victory which Militant on Earth is expos'd to the Assaults of its Enemies and which freed from Danger tho' not yet from Punishment is cleansing by Purgatory Pains And this whole Church is in Charity because it is in GOD. Now 't is the Office of Charity that the Inferiors rejoyce at the Prosperity of their Superiors and that the Superiors as far as in them lies be assistant to their Inferiors We therefore give our Brethren who are now in Heaven what Honour we lawfully may and in return desire the Assistance of their Prayers of which we often find the Effects And as for those who being shut up in the Prison of Purgatory cannot help themselves we give them what succour we can by pouring forth our Prayers for them to the common Father of us all who is well pleas'd with this Brotherly Affection we mutually bear one another in him But these Bonds of Love the Sectaries would have broken asunder They say that the Saints mind only their own Happiness neither Hearing nor being any ways mov'd by our Prayers To which they farther add that whatever help we expect from their Suffrages we so much derogate from the Honour of CHRIST They moreover affirm that there are not contrary to what we with the most Antient Fathers believe any Punishments by which such of the Elect as are not yet perfectly clean are Purify'd after Death All these things are briefly to be asserted against them It has ever from the most Antient Times been the Custom of the Orthodox Church to request of the Blessed Spirits the Holy Martyrs and all others whom the Majesty of Miracles manifested to be in the Fruition of GOD and Heavenly Joyes that they would Pray for us to our Lord. What do ye O Sectaries dislike in this The Scriptures you say teach it not If I should answer That neither do the Scriptures forbid it what could you farther reply Why shall I not rather believe a thing to be lawful which not being prohibited by the Scriptures is practis'd by the Church than to be unlawful because it is not expresly commanded in Scripture But we seek not to shelter our selves under this Excuse For we rely on the Scriptures by which the Faithful are frequently commanded mutually to Pray for each other and in which we often find Holy Men requesting the Prayers of their Brethren 'T is so thou wilt say but these were living Men and desir'd the Prayers of the Living Shew me Sectary this difference in Scripture that 't is lawful to desire GODS Favour by the Prayers of Holy Men yet Living and unlawful so to do by the Prayers of the Deceased and I will yeild up the Cause Certainly Moses was Dead and so was Samuel when GOD declar'd That they were wont to Pray for the Jews Jer. 15. v. 1. Jeremiah also was dead when 't was reveal'd to Judas Maccabeus That he Pray'd for the People and the Temple 2 Maccab. 5. But thou wilt say There is one Mediator between GOD and Men which is CHRIST JESUS Why then do ye make so many Mediators so many Intercessors for us There can scarce be a more stupid Argument So that t is to be wondred you should so often press to have it heard There is indeed one CHRIST by whose Mediation Salvation is granted but Mediators of Intercession such as we affirm the Saints to be you your selves do not deny that there are as many as there are Believers For do not you desire the Prayers of one another And is not he whose Prayers are desir'd as much a Mediator for you as the Saints are for us Why therefore do you cry out that we injure CHRIST Why do you accuse us of esteeming his Merits insufficient The Controversy lyes in this Point whether we may desire the Prayers of that Person now triumphing in Heaven whose Intercession we might lawfully have requested when living here on Earth This is to wit the great Injury we do to CHRIST this is our Impiety this is our Forgetfulness of CHRIST's Passion But thou wilt reply The Saints neither see nor hear their Suppliants that 't is a very vain thing to Address our Discourse to these who are so far off Were it so O Sectary We Catholicks might indeed be accus'd of Folly in taking such unnecessary pains to offer up our Petitions to those who are though not unworthy yet wholly ignorant of the Addresses made to them yet this would not render us guilty of Impiety But we are by Scriptures Fathers and the practice of the Church assur'd the contrary If Moses says our Lord by the Prophet Jeremiah Chap. 15. v. 1. and Samuel shall stand before me my Soul is not towards this People Now how vain would this have been had not Moses and Samuel then often stood before him and been accustom'd according to the exigency of Affairs and Times to intercede for the Jews I omit its being most clearly said in the Maccabees Chap. 15. That Hieremias and Onias who were then departed out of this World Pray'd for all the People of the Jews And throughout the whole Apocalypse 't is said That the Angels and Saints do by the Power of God behold these Earthly things Moreover the Angel Raphael as we find it in Tobias Chap 12. when he was standing before Almighty GOD Offer'd up to our Lord the Prayers of Tobias 't is not therefore to be question'd but he heard them Finally dost thou believe that thou art wiser in this matter than the much to be Venerated Primitive Church Whose Custom and Doctrine in the time of St. Augustine and St. Ambrose I shall in their words set before thee The Angels says St. Ambrose in his Book De viduis are to be Supplicated who are given us for a Guard of whom we may seem to challenge some sort of Patronage from the Pledge of their Bodies They can Pray for our Sins who have with their own Blood wash'd away what Sins themselves have had For they are GOD 's Martyrs our Prelates the Beholders of our Lives and Actions Let us not be asham'd to use them as Intercessors for our Infirmities because they themselves well knew the Infirmity of the Body even when they overcame it St. Augustine in his Book De cura pro Mortuis Chap. 4. has these words When ever therefore the Mind reflects on the Place where the Body of a most dear Friend is Buried if
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