tells him how in the prosecution of his Argument he should be forced to lay open his frequent Contradictions Calumnies and Misrepresentations By which the Reader may now see that you meant me no Harm in all these hard words against me but you found them in your Author and you transcribed the railing with as little Judgment as you have done the Reason of his Books After this short and civil Preface you tell Me 3. Ad pag. 2. Reply Reply p. 2. That there was a time in which the * T. G 's first Answ Pref. pag. 15. Genuine Sons of the Church of England excused the Roman Catholick Church of that odious Imputation of Idolatry and * T. G 's first Answ pref pag. 15. SOME of them never †T. G 's second Answ p. 15. excommunicated nor censured by the Church of England for it maintain'd that We cannot defend the Charge of Idolatry against the Church of Rome without denying that Church to be a true Church and by Consequence without contradicting our selves and going against the intention of the Reformation which was not to make a new Church but to restore a sick Church to its Soundness a corrupt Church to its Purity c. See T. G. first Answer Pref. p. 7. Answ Had you but ingenuously own'd from whence you had taken this Objection against our Church the Reader would presently have known whither to have gone for the Confutation of it But seeing you are resolved to make it your own I shall answer two things 1st That what you have said is false 2dly That you either did or ought to have known it to be so 4. First It is false that those whom from T. G. you are pleased to stile the Genuine Sons of the Church of England have excused your Church of that odious Imputation of Idolatry or by consequence did think that we could not defend it against you without contradicting our selves and going against the intention of the Reformation Dr. Jackson see his Works 3 vol. Fol. Lond. An. 1673. 5. Your first Author is Dr. Jackson and he so far from excusing you in this Point as you most wretchedly assert that in a set Discourse under this very Title * Tom. 1. Of the Identity or Aequivalency of Superstition in Rome Heathen and Rome Christian he spends above 17 Sheets on purpose to prove the Charge of Idolatry upon you and answers all your Evasions by which you endeavour in vain to clear your selves of the Guilt of it The very Subject of his first Chapter is to shew That Rome Christian in latter Years sought rather to allay than to abrogate the Idolatry of Rome Heathen p. 933. In his 25th Chapter having mention'd that Conclusion of your Church * Pag. 946. That Saints are to be worshipped with Religious Worship He pronounces Sentence against you in these very words * Pag. 946. This we say is formal Idolatry The Title of his 27th Chapter is positive †Ibid. p. 954. That the same Expression of our respect or observance towards Saints or Angels locally present cannot without Superstition or Idolatry be made to them in their Absence And in the 28th Chapter speaking of your form of commending a departing Soul ‖ Ibid. p. 961. Depart out of this World in the Name of God the Father Almighty who hath created thee in the Name of Jesus Christ the Son of God who suffer'd for thee Breviarium Roman de Ord. Commendationis animae Deo. in the Name of the Holy Ghost who was poured forth upon thee in the Name of Angels and Arch-angels in the Name of Thrones and Dominions in the Name of Principalities and Powers in the Name of Cherubims and Seraphims in the Name of Patriarchs and Prophets in the Name of Holy Apostles and Evangelists in the Name of Holy Martyrs and Confessors in the Name of Holy Monks and Hermites in the Name of Virgins and of all God's Saints and Saintesses This day let thy Soul be in Peace and thy Habitation in Holy Sion If says he thus they pray with their Lips only they mock God as well as the Saints If thus they pray with internal Affection of Heart and Spirit they really worship Saints with the self-same Honour wherewith they honour God They might with less Impiety admit a Christian Soul into the Church Militant than translate it into the Church Triumphant in other Names besides the Trinity They might better baptize them only in the Name of God the Father and of S. Francis S. Benedict and S. Dominick c. without any mention of God the Son and Holy Ghost rather than joyn these as Commissioners with them in dismissing Souls out of their Bodies To censure this part of their Liturgy as it deserves it is no Prayer but a CHARM conceived out of the Dregs and Reliques of HEATHENISH IDOLATRY which cannot be brought forth but in BLASPHEMY nor be applied to any sick Soul without SORCERY * See more in express words cap. 24. § 8. p. 943. cap. 27. § 2. p. 956. Tom. 1. 6. This is the first of our Church-men that you say excused you from the odious imputation of Idolatry And since I perceive his Authority is of some weight with you as being one of the Genuine Sons of the Church of England which T. G. would not allow his Adversary nor it may be will you therefore esteem Me to be I hope you will for his sake who here charges your Offices with CHARMS and SORCERY as well as with Superstition and Idolatry be from henceforth a little more favourable to my Reflection on another occasion of your †Which he also in express words charges your Adoration of the Cross with cap. 24. §. 4. p. 941. oper Tom. 1. MAGICAL INCANTATIONS 7. I have been detain'd a little longer than I designed in this first Author but I will make amends for it by referring you for the ‖ Dr. FEILD A. B. LAVD Dr. HEYLIN three next to the like account which * See in the Preface to his first Book concerning the Idolatry of the C. R. and his general Pref. to the several late Treatises c. Lond. 1673. Dr. St. gave to your Friend T. G. from their own words As for †Mr. THORNDIKE Mr. Thorndyke it is confess'd he was once in the Opinion that you mention but you knew very well that he changed his Mind before his Death You may see by an Extract that has lately been ‖ Mr. Pulton considered Lond. 1687. publish'd out of his Will what an ill Notion he had of your Church in general and for the Point before us T. G's Reverend and Learned Adversary eight Years ago publish'd a Paper from * Dr. Stilling Conferences against T. G. Lond. 1679. pag. 89. Mr. Thorndyke's own hand in which among other Exceptions against you he makes this his 12th To pray to Saints departed for those things which only God can give
Name be the last Expression of their dying Breath 'T is you that have told them that to list themselves into her Fraternity is one of the surest means in the World to ascertain their Salvation From you they learn in all their prayers to call upon her at the sound of a Bell thrice every day wherever they are or whatever they are about to fall down upon their Knees and salute her Your Confessions Absolutions Excommunications Vows Thanksgivings Visitations Commendations Conjurations are all transacted in her Name as well as in the Name of the Holy Trinity Whilst our Saviour Christ is represented by you either as still in the state of Pupillage an Infant in her Arms or expiring upon his Cross she has her Crown and Glory about her Head sometimes the Moon under her feet and not seldom the whole Trinity joyning to set forth her Honour Her Titles in all your Offices are Excessive The Queen of Heaven the Mother of Divine Grace the Mirrour of Righteousness the Seat of Wisdom the Cause of our joy the Tower of David the Ark of the Covenant the Gate of Heaven the Refuge of Sinners the Help of Christians the Queen of Angels Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors and all Saints These are the common Names you give her in your Hymns your Litanies and Prayers to her And what Impression all this must make upon untutor'd minds how much greater value they will be hereby apt to set upon her than upon Christ himself every mans reason will soon tell him and a sad experience confirms it to us 148. But indeed Sixthly Isaia XXIV 2. It is here in the Words of the Prophet As with the people so with the Priest Your Superstition is not at all less tho much more inexcusable than theirs Witness those great Names for whom you have appeared to be so much concern'd St. Bernard St. Germain St. Anselme St. Antonine St. Bernardine c. And whose Blasphemous Devotion I have before exposed to the World. Let the Writings of Card. Bona and Father Crasset the Contemplations of the Blessed Virgin and the late Apology for them in our own Language be consider'd For I am very much mistaken if it be possible for the most ignorant Zealot to be more unreasonably extravagant than these Learned Men have approved themselves to be 149. Nor may you turn off these with your old distinction that they are but private persons and for whose Excesses therefore your Church is not to Answer They were approved in what they did and many of them are at this day Worshipped by you as Canonized Saints and 't was this Superstition that especially contributed to their Exaltation Who was it that composed that exorbitant Hymn yet used in your Church Ave Maris Stella but your devout St. Bernard S. Herman another of your own Order made those others neither less extravagant nor less authorized by you Salve Regina Alma Redemptoris Mater and Ave Regina Caelorum And the late Editor of his Life tells us Calendar Benedictin To. 3. Jul. 19. That being Lame in Body and Dull in Mind he pray'd earnestly to the Blessed Virgin in this Romantick manner Help O help the doubly wretched Herman His Prayer smote the tender hearted Virgin and immediately she appear'd to him and offer'd him his choice whether he would have firmness of Body or Accuteness of Mind He chose the latter and express'd his Gratitude to his great Benefactress by composing those famous Hymns beforementioned to her Honour 150. It was another of the same Order and that had in your Opinion two the greatest Characters any Man can pretend to Pope Urban 11. Ibid. Jul. 29. a Pope in the Church Militant and now a Saint in the Church Triumphant who appointed the three Solemn Devotions I have spoken of to be every day paid to the Blessed Virgin at the sound of a Bell and composed the Course of the Virgin that what was done before by the Monks only might from thenceforth become the Public Service of the Church to her 151. What is the great Commendation that is given of S. Gerard Ibid. Sept. 24 and he too a Saint of your own Order But that having caused an Image of the Blessed Virgin to be curiously wrought he set it up in a Chappel built on purpose for it and appointed Incense and sweet Odours to be every day for ever burnt to it That he taught the Hungarians to call her their Lady having perswaded their King Stephen to make his Kingdom Tributary to her In short that he never heard the Name of Mary pronounced but he Worshipp'd it bowing his Face towards the Ground 152. Cal. Ben. To. 4. Sept. 30. 'T was this was the great thing for which yet another of your Order St. Joscio was Canonized Whose Piety to the Virgin whilst he lived was rewarded with a notable Miracle at his death For no sooner was he dead but there grew five Roses of an extraordinary sweetness out of his Head two out of his Eyes two out of his Ears and one out of his Mouth and upon every one of them a Letter of the Virgin Mary's name so that the whole M.A.R.I.A. was composed by them 153. Thus has this devotion to the Saints almost wholly overcome your piety towards God. Your Devotions your Histories your Lives your Miracles are all framed to promote it And now I am mentioning those Evils which from these kind of Legends have been derived to corrupt both the Opinions and Practice of those who are acquainted with little else than these Fables I will refer it to your self to tell me whether you can endure to see the Dignity of our Saviour and the Majesty of God himself so lessen'd as it is by many of your Communion to encrease the Veneration of the Saints 154. Ibid. ad IV. Maii p. 320. To. 2. When St. Gothardus was chosen by the Emperor Henry to succeed Bernard in the Bishoprick of Hildersheim and the Monk modestly declined that Honour the Blessed Virgin the same night appears to him and sharply reproves him in this Ranting Rhetorick Scito Imperatorem MEO id JVSSV motiri Peccasti penicaciâ tua in M E filium Know says she that the Emperour has done this at MY COMMAND Thou hast sin'd by thy obstinacy against ME and MY SON This indeed was as became the Queen of Heaven and one would think by it that she still maintain'd the RIGHT of a MOTHER over Her Son. 155. But you have dealt yet worse wirh our Saviour than this your Writers represent him at this day as a little Child in Heaven as if he were ever to continue in the same impotent State in which your Pictures and Images express him Thus we read in the Life of St. Paula Cal. Ben. To. 1. Jan. 5. That the Blessed Virgin appear'd to her with her LITTLE BOY who kist Paula and squeezed some of his Mothers Milk into her Mouth Nor was this any
IMPRIMATUR Liber cui Titulus A Second Defence of the Exposition of the Church of England H. Maurice Rmo in Christo P. D. Wilhelmo Arciepiscopo Cant. a Sacris Jan. 24. 1687. A SECOND DEFENCE OF THE EXPOSITION of the DOCTRINE OF THE Church of England Against the New EXCEPTIONS Of Monsieur de MEAVX AND HIS VINDICATOR The Second Part. LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXXVIII THE CONTENTS THE ANSWER to the PREFACE What little Cause those of the Church of Rome have to complain of the Evils of Heresie and Schism num 2 3. Whether Papists or Protestants have sought the most advantagious Means for the redressing of them n. 4. The Holy Scripture the only sure Foundation whereon to build our Faith n. 6. How vain the Attempts of those of the Church of Rome have been in their Disputes against us n. 9. Of the several Methods that they have taken in them n. 10. Their Complaints of our Misrepresenting their Doctrines and Practices groundless n. 18. Of the first CONVERSION of the English by AUSTIN the Monk n. 22. 47. That neither did Austin teach nor the British Churches believe or practise as the Church of Rome do's now n. 24. That for a long time after Austin both their Belief and Practice was different from that of the Church of Rome at this day n. 28. Of King HENRY VIIIth EDWARD VIth Q. MARY Q. ELIZABETH and the State of Religion in their days n. 35. That the Papists have been under-hand the Causes of our Divisions n. 42. Of the State of Religion under K. CHARLES Ist n. 45. How far we allow that Salvation is to be had in the Church of Rome n. 48. Of the Original of our CIVIL WARS in K. CHARLES Ist's time n. 51. Of the State of Religion under K. CHARLES IId and K. JAMES IId and what was the occasion of our present Controversies and how they have been carried on n. 52. What use our READERS ought to make of these Discourses n. 60. And the Method of my present DEFENCE n. 64. The Vindicators Apology for their NEW FRIENDS n. 67. And his Presumption why they cannot be supposed to palliate their Doctrine considered and refuted n. 68. The OATH to be taken by a NEW CONVERT at his admission into the Church of Rome n. 77. Introduction THat our Adversaries advance nothing New against us but repeat the same things over and over without taking the least notice of the Answers that have been given to them The ANSWER TO THE First ARTICLE THe VINDICATOR an Instance of this His first Article entirely stolen out of T. G. and confuted by Dr. Stillingfleet above 11 Years since pag. 45. num 1. That the true and genuine Sons of the Church of England have constantly charged those of the Church of Rome with IDOLATRY n. 3. In particular those whom he quotes to the contrary viz. Dr. Jackson n. 5. Dr. Field A. B. Laud. Dr. Heylin Mr. Thorndyke n. 7 8. and Dr. Hammond n. 9. His other little Cavils as to this Point consider'd n. 12. And the Authority of the Book of HOMILIES asserted n. 13. His particular Exceptions against my DEFENCE as to this Article answered And his shuffling exposed n. 19 c. The ANSWER TO THE Second ARTICLE COncerning the Object of Religious VVorship p. 55. That the VINDICATOR has in vain new modelled the B. of MEAUX's Position n. 2. The Scheme which he has laid down to justify the Doctrine and Practice of the Ch. of Rome in giving Religious Worship to others besides God consider'd in some short Reflections upon the several Parts of it The ANSWER TO THE Fourth ARTICLE OF the INVOCATION of SAINTS Of the State of the Question between us and the VINDICATOR's three Positions for the clearing of it pag. 65. n. 1 2. The Sum of this Article reduced to II. General Points I. POINT Whether it be lawful to pray to the Saints to PRAY FOR US Our Adversaries confess it not to be necessary n. 4. That it is unlawful upon the VINDICATOR 's own Principle so to do viz. That we may not give any religious Service strictly and properly so called to any other than God ONLY n. 5 6. That the Act of invoking the Saints is strictly and properly a Religious Act shewn 1st From the very Nature of the Act it self n. 7. It is not an Act of the same kind with that of desiring of our living Brethren to pray for us n. 8. But attributes to the Creature the Perfections proper to God. ib. The Bp of Meaux 's shuffling upon this occasion more particularly laid open n. 11. 2dly From the Circumstances of it n. 15. Of the Time Place and Manner in which the Romanists invoke their Saints n. 16. Of their offering up the Mass to their HONOUR and desiring its Acceptance through their MERITS n. 17 c. Of their making VOWS to the Saints n. 19 c. II. POINT What the true Doctrine and Practice of the Church of Rome is as to the Point of INVOCATION of SAINTS The Sum of this Part reduced to IV Considerations SECT I. Whether all the Prayers that are made to the Saints by those of the Church of Rome can fairly be reduced to this One Sense PRAY FOR US That they cannot shewn 1st From the Doctrine of the Council of Trent and of its Catechism n. 25. 2dly From the Opinion which those of the Church of Rome have of the State and Power of the Saints departed n. 30. 3dly From the neglect of the Council of Trent and of the Governours of the Church of Rome either to establish any such Interpretation or to Censure those that have taught otherwise n. 33. 4thly From the words of the Prayers themselves which utterly refuse such an Exposition n. 35. And from the other Service which the Church of Rome allows to the Saints and which cannot be reconciled with these Pretences n. 39. 5thly From the Opinions and Practice of some of the greatest Saints in the Roman Calendar and of other Persons of especial Note amongst them n. 40. Examples of all this n. 41 c. That the Holy Scripture is in vain alledged to countenance this Superstition n. 46. SECT II. After what manner it is that the Church of Rome prays to God through the Merits of her SAINTS The VINDICATOR's Pretences n. 49. That the Church of Rome do's truly pray to God for Mercies through the Merits of her Saints n. 51. The VINDICATOR's Excuses for this considered and exploded n. 53. That the Holy Scripture do's by no meanes countenance any such Practice n. 54. SECT III. In which the VINDICATOR's Arguments for the Establishing of this Worship are particularly consider'd and their Weakness laid open pag. 102. That the practice of Invocation of Saints is not to be proved by Holy Scripture n. 55. Nor has it the Antiquity that is pretended shewn in two periods I st PERIOD That the Custome of Praying to Saints
had no being in the Church for the first 300 Years n. 57. The VINDICATOR's Proofs particularly examined and shewn to be either False or Ridiculous n. 59. That the Fathers of the first three Centuries pray'd to God ONLY n. 66. My presumption heretofore alledged for this viz. That those Fathers did not believe that the souls of the Just went immediately to Heaven justified and the VINDCATOR's Answer shewn to be insufficient n. 73. Sixtus Senensis in vain Misrepresented by Him. n. 76. That this practice did not pass quietly in the following Ages n. 82. His pretence that the Fourth General Council pray'd to Flavian both false and impertinent n. 80. His little exception of the few Writings that remain of the Primitive Fathers neither true nor to the purpose n. 78 85. How this Practice by degrees crept into the Church n. 89. IId PERIOD What Grounds this Superstition had in the Fourth Century That most of the Addresses of this Age were rather Rhetorical Flights than formal Invocations n. 92. Eight differences proposed between what the Fathers of the Fourth Age did and what those of the Church of Rome do now as to this Matter n. 96. That the Invocation of Saints was never solemnly establish'd in the Church before the latter End of the 8th Century n. 97. c. SECT IV. What our Reasons are against this Service The true state of the difference betwixt us as to this matter n. 105. That the Church of Rome do's exact a complyance in this Practice ANATHEMATIZE those who Oppose it n. 106. That this is 1st Repugnant to God's Holy Word n. 111. 2dly Contrary to Antiquity n. 119. 3dly Unreasonable in the Constitution n. 126. Because They are neither certain that the Saints hear their Prayers n. 127. Nor that those whom they Pray to are indeed Saints n. 128. And Pray to many as such that never lived in the World. n. 130. Such were S. George n. 130. S. Lazarus S. Longinus S. Christopher S. Ursula c. A brief Account of whose Acts is offer'd and their falseness observed A pleasant Relation of a Bishop and Martyr made out of two words of an ancient Inscription and the great Miracles that were wrought at his Monument n. 134. That the wiser Papists complain of this Extravagance 4thly That it is unprofitable and Impious in the Practise n. 139. That it is Unprofitable n. 139. That it is Impious n. 143. Several remakable Instances of Impiety in this practice n. 147 c. The whole conluded with an account of the PROCESSION of the JESUITS of LUXEMBOURG May 20. 1685. n. 157 c. The ANSWER TO THE Fourth ARTICLE Of IMAGES and RELIQUES THE Sum of this Chapter reduced to three General Considerations SECT I. Of the Benefit of Pictures and Images n. 4. Concerning which it is observed 1st That the VINDICATOR ought not at this time to confound PICTURES and IMAGES together n. 6. 2dly Nor single Figures and Historical Representations Ibid. § 2. 3dly That it is impertinent to this Point to discourse of the BENEFIT where the Dispute is concerning the WORSHIP of Images Ibid. § 3. For that 4thly No Benefit were it ever so great would be able to excuse this Ibid. § 4. 5thly That Images are not useful to the Ignorant as is pretended Ibid. § 5. 6thly But on the contrary very pernicious and injurious Ibid. § 9. An Account of Horrible Abuses in many of their Images and Pictures Viz. Of GOD the FATHER n. 7 8. Of the HOLY TRINITY n. 9. Of our SAVIOUR CHRIST n. 10. And of the B. VIRGIN Ibid. c. The Pretence that there is now no danger of IDOLATRY in all this proposed and the way open'd to the refuting of it n. 15 16. SECT II. The Charge of Image-Worship made Good and the Evasions answer'd by which the VINDICATOR endeavours to excuse his Church from the Guilt of it n. 17. This is done in three Particulars I st The Voice of the Ch. of Rome proposed in Her Definitions as to this Matter n. 18 19. IIdly This Voice interpreted by Card. CAPISVCCHI who approved Monsieur de MEAVX's Exposition and to whose Book Mr. de MEAVX himself appeals n. 20. After rejecting several Opinions which in the Cardinal's Judgment did not allow sufficient Honour to Images n. 21 c. He concludes it to be the CHURCHES SENSE that the SAME Worship is to be given to the IMAGES as is given to the THINGS represented by them n. 26. That Aquinas allow'd Supreme Divine Worship to the CROSS contrary to the VINDICATOR's Pretences n. 27. Some Reflections upon what this Cardinal has said with reference to the Point before us n. 28 c. An Account of one of the Roman Church lately put into the INQVISITION for denying the Worship of Images recommended to the VINDICATOR's Consideration n. 32 33. IIIdly This farther shewn to be the Sense of the Church of Rome from those Authorized Practices I alledged in my DEFENCE 1. The Instance from the Order of Receiving an Emperor justified n. 35. 2dly The Argument from the Office of CONSECRATING A NEW CROSS made Good and the VINDICATOR's Evasions shewn to be inconsistent with the Design of it n. 36. Of their AGNUS DEI's and the Superstition that is committed in the Design and Consecration of them n. 44 45. Of HOLY WATER and the Superstition committed in the Design and Use of it n. 47. Of INCENSE n. 51. That the Primitive Church used Incense n. 51. But that this is no Plea for what the Church of Rome do's now The Consecrating and Burning of Incense in that Church Superstitious n. 52. Idolatrous n. 54. 3dly The Instance of the GOOD-FRIDAY Service farther vindicated And the Exceptions made against it shewn to be frivolous n. 56. That those of the Church of Rome do suppose this to be a good Proof of their paying Divine Worship to the CROSS n. 60. Two extravagant Proofs to excuse this Worship from being Idolatrous proposed and answered n. 61 62 63 c. 4thly The Argument taken from the HYMNS of the Church of Rome justified n. 65. And the VINDICATOR's Interpretation of them shewn to be absurd n. 69. SECT III. That the Church of Rome thus worshipping of Images is truly and properly guilty of IDOLATRY This made good in two Points n. 76. I. POINT Of the true Nature of IDOLATRY The late Notion of IDOLATRY proposed and that in this sense we do not charge the Church of Rome with it n. 77. What IDOLATRY according to the Scripture is shewn in two Particulars I st Q. Whether according to the Scripture-Notion of IDOLATRY those may not be guilty of it who yet both know and worship the One True GOD n. 78. That they may made manifest from the Instances 1st Of the Golden Calf n. 80. 2dly Of the Calves of Dan and Bethel n. 86. Other Arguments to make good the Affirmative of this Question n. 93. That this was the Notion of the Primitive Fathers n. 94. And is
confess'd by the principal Authors of the Church of Rome it self n. 97. IIdly Q. How this may be done by them Two ways proposed from what has before been said viz. 1st By worshipping the true God after an Idolatrous manner n. 101. 2dly By giving Divine Worship to any other besides Him n. 103. II. POINT That the Church of Rome in the Worship of Images is truly and properly guilty of IDOLATRY This shewn according to the VINDICATOR's desire in two different respects I st With reference to those who hold that Images are to be worshipped with the same Worship as the things which they represent n. 108. IIdly As it concerns their Opinions who denying this yet allow an inferiour Honour to them n. 113. Of RELIQUES Two things proposed to be proved in answer to the VINDICATOR's Exceptions I st That those of the Church of Rome do truly and properly worship the RELIQUES of their Saints For their Expressions it is undeniable n. 121. That their Practice is agreeable to their Words shewn 1st In the instance of that Worship which they give to the Wood of the true Cross n. 122. 2dly To all the other RELIQUES that have ever touch'd our Saviour Christ n. 124. 3dly From their allow'd practice of swearing by them n. 125. A famous Story of S. GURIA for the illustrating of this matter n. 126. 4thly From their other Practices especially their carrying of them in Procession an instance whereof is given from the Roman Pontifical n. 127 c. IIdly That they do seek to them for Help and Assistance My Interpretation of the Council of Trent in reference to this Point made good against the new Pretences of the VINDICATOR n. 129. The thing it self justified from the Publick Prayers of that Church n. 130. And from a memorable Instance of a Prince of the Family of the Dukes of Radzevil with which the whole is concluded ERRATA PAge 3. of the Contents for Fourth Article read Third Article P. 6. num 9. line 4. r. our Schism P. 8. n. 14. l. 5. r. Err. P. 11. n. 21. l. 3. uncertain r. unsincere P. 18. n. 35. l. 17. r. Their Vsurpations P. 25. l. 9. r. were now P. 32. n. 57. l. 7. del after all P. 48. n. 9. l. 6. Images r. Angels P. 87. l. 1. r. recising P. 114. Marg. Expos r. Def. of the Expos P. 120. Marg. r. lib. Carol. P. 127. Marg. r. Reg. Moral 80. P. 133. l. 27. For and I del and. P. 137. n. 154. l. 5. r. Moliri Pervicaciâ P. 138. l. 4. r. Curarum P. 167. l. ult for V. r. VIth Cent. P. 187. n. 119. l. 3. r. upon a verbal P. 190. n. 124. l. 15. Cloth with which P. 194. l. 25. and only del and. P. 196. n. 132. l. 1. r. Radzevil The Pages are interrupted in two places pag. 60. and p. 160. AN ANSWER TO THE PREFACE THE Design of your Preface seems reducible to these two Points viz. I. Of the State of the Controversy between the Papists and Protestants in general And II. Of the Disputes that have heretofore been and are at this day managed against you by Vs of this Church in particular 2. Ad pag. 1. The former of these you introduce with a short harangue of the Mischief which Heresie and Schism bring along with them not only to the individual Persons that are guilty of them but also to the Nations in which they are propagated You represent to us the miserable Broils and other worse Consequences that have attended these Controversies of Religion in this and the last Age And from thence you conclude how much they are to be commended who labour to establish Truth and Vnity and those to be condemned who seek all means possible to obscure the one and obstruct the other 3. Answ To all which I have only this to reply that we need no Arguments to convince us of these things There are none more sensible of the Mischiefs of Schism and Heresie than we are or that do more truly lament the Divisions that are in the Church or would more heartily contribute what in us lies to the closing of them But then as we have good cause to believe both from the Authority of Holy Scripture and from the Nature of Mankind that whilst there is a Devil in Hell and Men of Interest and Designs upon Earth there shall also be Heresies 1 Cor. xi 19. that they who are approved may be made manifest So we cannot but complain that those should be the most forward to charge us both with the Guilt and Mischief of them at whose doors the Crime and therefore the Evil Consequences of it will one day be found to lie The former of these it will be the business of the following Discourse to make good And for the latter whosoever shall impartially consider the Origen of those Broils with which the World has you say been agitated in this and the last Age upon the account of Religion not to mention those other Mischiefs of Treasons Plots Massacres Persecutions and the like will soon be convinced who they are that have cause to complain of these Evils For what you add 4. Ibid. That they who will but impartially consider matters will find that Catholicks have upon all occasions sought the most Advantageous Means to procure this Christian Peace tho to their grief they have still been hindred from effecting this Good Work. Answ I do not well know what you design by it If by the most Advantageous Means you understand those Means of Knowledg which God has given us whereby to come to discern the Truth of Religion such as 1. A diligent reading of the Holy Scriptures the using of all imaginable Assistances for the understanding the sense of them by studying the Original Languages in which they were written searching of Antiquity collating parallel places and the like 2. The divesting of our selves of our Prejudices and forming in our Minds an impartial desire to find out the Truth with an honest readiness to embrace it on what side soever it lies And lastly to all this add our earnest Prayer to God for his Grace to bless and prosper our Endeavours these I confess are the best Means to discover Christian Truth and to exhort all others to the use of them the most advantageous way to promote it But then I cannot imagine why you should seem to appropriate these Means to your selves as if you only sought Truth and Peace by them seeing it cannot be deny'd but that We have employ'd all these with as great diligence as you can pretend to have done it But now some other Means indeed there are which you have pursu'd and which it may be you understand by this Expression and then We neither deny your Assertion nor envy you the Glory of being singular in your Endeavours of procuring Peace by them Such are 1. The Means of Force and Violence your Holy Leagues and private Treacheries your Inquisitions
Meaux tell us that all the Prayers of your Church be their Words never so repugnant must yet be reduced to this sense PRAY FOR US But you have often been told that this is utterly disallow'd by us However to take off all occasion of Cavil as far as is possible I will offer you the State of the Question in such Terms as you shall have no just cause to except against it viz. Whether it be Lawful to pray to the Saints after the manner that is at this day prescribed and practised in the Church of Rome And I will so far comply with you as to consider it in both respects 1. According to your own Representation of it 2. According to that which is indeed your Practice and freely acknowledged by the greatest Men of your Church to be so I. POINT Whether it be Lawful to pray to the Saints to PRAY FOR US 3. This is the least that can possibly be made of this Matter And because I would bring the Point to the fairest Issue that may be as I have proposed the Question according to your own desire so I will dispute it with you upon your own Principles 4. And first for what concerns the Terms of the Question they are exactly taken from your own Wards You tell us in your Vindication that all you say is Vindic. p. 30. That it is LAWFUL to Pray to the Saints and here in your Reply That the Difference between us is Whether it be LAWFUL for us to Pray to them Reply p. 11 In which yet you seem to fall a little below even the Bishop of Meaux Himself who tells us That your Church teaches that it is PROFITABLE at least to Pray to them Exposit Sect. IV. p. 5. But however such is our Security according to Both of you that neither You nor He care to say it is our Duty so to do or that we run any Danger in the neglect of it Whatever therefore be the Issue of this Dispute it is wholly your Concern to look to it thus much we are Agreed in That there is no Sin in our Omission For where there is no Law there is no Transgression 5. But I will now presume to go farther And since you dare not say that such an Invocation is Necessary I will undertake to affirm that neither is it Profitable nor indeed Lawful but utterly forbidden And for proof of this I shall lay down no Other Foundation than what you have your self establish'd viz. That Religious Honour or Worship may be taken in a double Sense See Vidicat p. 27. First Strictly and so is due Only to God Secondly More largely and so may be paid to Creatures And what you mean by these Terms you thus more fully express Ibid. p. 28 29. That by Religious Honour in this latter sense and as you apply it to the Saints you understand only an Honour so called by an extrinsecal Denomination from the CAUSE and MOTIVE but not from the NATURE of the ACT it self That is such an Honour as may be in it self Civil and is only CALLED Religious because it is done for God's sake and in Obedience to God's Commands But for a strict and proper Religious Worship such as is in its own Nature so this you confess with us to be due to God ONLY From whence I conclude That to give such a Worship to any Creature must be to pay that Service to the Creature which is due only to the Creator and that is in Our Sense to Commit Idolatry 6. And now from this Principle which you have your self laid down Vindic. p. 28. and which you think will be alone sufficient to Answer all Objections brought against your Doctrine I take leave to inferr That if even such an Invocation as you confess you pay to the Saints be strictly a Religious Honour in the very Nature of the Act it self and not barely by an Extrinsecal Denomination from the Cause and Motive of it it will then remain that you are guilty in this Service of giving that Worship to the Saints which is due only to God and are by Consequence therein guilty of Idolatry And this I shall shew I. From the very Nature of the Act it self II. From the Circumstances of it I. That the very Nature of the Act it self of Invocating the Saints does shew that it is strictly and properly a Religious Worship 7. This is what I know Monsieur de Meaux denies He tells us That when you pray to the Saints Expos Artic. IV. you do it in the same Spirit of Charity and according to the same Order of Brotherly Society which moves us to demand Assistance of our Brethren living upon Earth Thus he smooths your Invocation of Saints departed to make it lie even with our desires of one anothers prayers But did he in good earnest believe that nothing but a Spirit of Charity and the Order of Brotherly Society is to be discerned in the Act of calling upon departed Saints to pray for us We have indeed that Charity for them as to believe that they have Charity for us and though they are highly advanced above us we yet take them to be our Brethren But is this all that is implied in the Act of calling upon them to pray for us For my part I cannot but believe that Monsieur de Meaux himself was sensible of a vast difference in the Case as appears by his endeavouring to blind it afterwards And I shall now offer some Reasons that may perhaps convince others as they have fully satisfied my self about it 8. For 1. If the Nature of that Act of Invoking the Saints in Heaven be the same with that of desiring my Christian Brother to pray for me upon Earth then on the other hand this is also of the same Nature with that And by consequence I may as well fall down upon my Knees here in London and desire my Christian Brother who is now it may be in Japan or somewhere in the East Indies or perhaps on his return homewards to pray for me as do the like to S. Peter or S. Paul who for any thing I can tell are at a vastly greater distance from me than my Friend upon Earth is But if there be something more than a Spirit of Charity or an acknowledgment of Brotherhood in calling upon my living friend who is out of all natural distance of hearing there is also something more than this in calling upon the dead who it may be are a thousand times farther from me than the living can be from one another Would not such an Invocation of my Friend think you suppose him to be more than a Brother or a Man Would not the Nature of the Act ascribe to him not only the praise of Charity but likewise the power of hearing and knowing all that is said upon Earth at any distance whatsoever I grant that if this were indeed no more than according to the Order
the same kind to VOW and to PRAY but says he We pray to the Saints in Order to God and therefore in the same manner we Vow to them too And the main Excuse which He makes for both is the utter ruine of yours and Monsieur de Meaux's Pretences viz. That the Saints are GODS BY PARTICIPATION Bellarm. de Cult SS Lib. iii. c. 9. p. 2235. D. A Remark which Card. Bellarmine thought so considerable that He from thence distinguishes between the Promises that are made to Men on Earth and to the Saints in Heaven so that the former are Only Promises the latter are Vows Because a Vow does not agree Otherwise to the Saints than as they are GODS BY PARTICIPATION 21. The Consequence of all is this plain Conclusion That if a Vow be strictly and properly an Act of Religious Worship and not only call'd so by an extrinsecal Denomination from the Cause and Motive of it and Prayer as Card. Cajetane says be an Act of the same kind with it then are they both Acts by your own Acknowledgment due only to God And therefore it must be a Sin to give them to any Other and being a Sin in a matter of Religious Worship whereby that Honour is given to the Creature which is due only to God it remains according to our Notion that it must be Idolatry 22. And thus have I hitherto argued against that Worship you pay to the Saints upon your own Principle and according to your own Proposal I shall only add to close this First Point That whether these Arguments shall be thought of force sufficient to convict you of what I am persuaded you are guilty in this Service it is your Concern alone to weigh If they are I need not say any thing to exaggerate your Offence which you commit in this Matter If they are not yet whilst we are neither defective in our Veneration towards those Blessed Souls but pay them all that Honour as I have before shewn of which they are now Capable whilst we transgress no Command of God in our Omission of these Superstitions nor fail continually to Address our selves to the Throne of Grace through our Great and Only Mediator Jesus Christ We are not only sure of his Intercession who we know is able both to Hear and Help us but also in a most likely way of obtaining the Charitable Assistances of those Holy Souls too who if they have any Knowledge of us or Concern for what passes Here below will doubtless need no Sollicitation to be kind to us but without our Intreaty offer up their Prayers to God for all those who thus serve him in Sincerity and Truth 23. But I must now go much farther and bring my Charge more closely against you by shewing secondly II. POINT What the True Doctrine and Practice of the Church of Rome is as to the Point of INVOCATION of SAINTS Now the Sum of this Point may I think best be reduced to these Four Considerations by which you endeavour in your Reply to justifie your selves in this Particular For I. As to the Prayers themselves you cannot deny but that in the natural Sense of them they do imply a proper and formal Invocation of the Saints to whom you Address But then you tell us That the Churches Sense is much otherwise and therefore that whatever their Words may seem to imply yet the Intention of them all is One and the Same viz. PRAY FOR US II. That as to what We object concerning the MERITS of the Saints your coucluding of All your Prayers in this Form Through Jesus Christ our Lord plainly shews that you mean no more by it than this Reply Art. iii. §. 18. p. 23. That God would vouchsafe to call to mind the glorious Actions and Sufferings of his Saints performed in and by His Grace and upon those Accounts accept your Sacrifices or hear your Prayers III. That for those Addresses you have the Warrant both of Scripture and Antiquity Whereas IV. We have neither against them Those Pretensions I offer'd in my Defence being either false or deceitful or at least not conclusive enough to engage you to lay aside a Practice which has been so many hundred Years in the Church and that by our own Confession This is the Sum of what is said on this Occasion not only by your self but by the generality of your Party And to this I shall answer with all the Plainness and Candour that I am able SECT I. Whether all the Prayers that are made to the Saints by those of the Church of Rome are fairly to be reduced to this One Sense PRAY FOR US 24. For thus it is that you Expound your selves That in what Terms soever those Prayers which you address to the Saints are Couch'd Reply Art. iii. sect 16. p. 22. the Intention of your Church reduces them always to this Form PRAY FOR US You charge me with VOLUNTARY fixing the Words of your Addresses which are Equivocal to a Univocal Sense and that Had I either as became a Christian or a Scholar taken notice of this Direction laid down by the Bishop of Condom both in his Book and in his Advertisement I should have saved my self the labour of Amassing such an Appendix as I have made to this Article and the Reader the trouble of perusing it to as little purpose Since tho your Church does indeed make her Addresses to the Saints for Protection and Power against your Enemies for Help and Assistance and the like yet it does Appear manifestly to any one Who is not WILFUL in his MISTAKES that all these are reduced to an Ora pro nobis it being a kind of Aid Succour and Protection to recommend the Miserable to Him who alone can succour them 25. Answer Such then are your Pretences To your Reflections I have spoken Already I come now to examine your Reasons And to convince Others if not You that I was not WILFUL in my MISTAKES as to the meaning of your Prayers but that you are a sort of Miserable Shufflers in your pretended Expositions of them For tell me now I beseech you by what Authority is it that your New Guides * Answer to Dr. St. p. 399 406 407. T. G. and the Bishop of Meaux undertake thus to detort the plain Expressions of your Addresses to a Signification utterly repugnant to the natural Meaning of them Have any of your General approved Councils positively defined this to be all your Design in them Full Answer p. 6. And if they have not are you not according to your own Language Ibid. p. 7. in your accusing of me on this Occasion a Falsifier a Calumniator and a Misrepresenter TOO Does the Council of Trent where it decrees this Service is to be paid to them say that this shall be the Universal Ecclesiastical Sense of these Devotions Nay does but so much as One single Rubrick in all your Offices give us the least Intimation of it
Catechism Conc. Trid. Part. IV. p. 345. Tit. Quis Orandus sit 26. It is I know pretended by Monsieur de Meaux That your Catechism authorizes this Exposition of them where it teaches the Difference there is between your Praying to God and to the Saints For that you pray to God either that He would give you Good things or that He would deliver you from Evil but to the Saints that they would undertake your Patronage and obtain for you those things you stand in need of That from Hence arises two different Forms of Prayer for that to God you say properly Have mercy upon us or Hear our Prayers but to the Saints Pray for us 27. Such are that Bishops Pretences and it must be confessed they have something that is plausible in them tho what will soon vanish when it comes to be examined to the Bottom For be it allow'd as He desires that there are here proposed two different Forms of Prayer for indeed we do not deny but that in General you may pray with other Sentiments to God than to the Saints tho too often in your Prayers themselves we find no great care taken to distinguish them To God as to the First and Supreme Dispenser of All Good to the Saints only as His Ministers and inferiour Distributers of it But does this therefore reduce all the Prayers you make to the Saints in whatever Terms they are conceived to this One Form PRAY FOR US Judge I beseech you by those Words which immediately follow in the Catechism but were not for the turn of an Expounder and therefore His Lordship thought good to omit them Catechism ibid. Altho it be Lawful IN ANOTHER MANNER to ask of the Saints themselves that THEY WOULD HAVE MERCY UPON US for they are very Merciful 28. If this be ANOTHER MANNER from the foregoing then I am sure all the Prayers of your Church are not to be reduced to that One Form Pray for us But what is this Other Manner Ibid. We may pray says the Catechism that being moved at the Misery of our Condition they would Help us with their FAVOUR and DEPRECATION with God. So that Here then is somewhat more at least in the opinion of your own Catechism than a meer praying for us Here is Encouragement to ask not only their Prayers but also their Favour and Interest too But indeed the Catechism goes yet farther For giving a Reason why Angels are to be invocated They are says the Catechism to be prayed to Pars iii. de Cultu Invocatione SS n. 19 20. p. 255. because they both continually look upon God and most willingly undertake the Patronage of our Salvation which IS COMMITTED to them And from thence in the next Section it infers the like Necessity of Honouring the Saints 29. This is plain dealing and gives us an Authentick Exposition of that Passage in the Council of Trent whose Sense you no less pervert than that of your Liturgies Concil Trid. Sess xxv de Invocat c. p. 292. viz. That for Obtaining the Benefits of God by his Son Jesus Christ you should betake your selves to their the Saints Prayers Aid and Assistance And to this End that you should not barely invoke them but invoke them in a suppliant manner as those who reign now with Christ. A Circumstance this which was not put in by Chance but was thought so considerable as to be mention'd in Pope Pius's Profession of Faith where nothing superfluous was to be admitted and where you declare That you firmly believe that the Saints who REIGN together with Christ are to be Venerated and Invoked Insomuch that as I have before observed your great Cardinals Cajetane and Bellarmine doubt not to call them Gods by Participation and to deliver it as the Catholick Doctrine and we know how conformable the Catholick Practice is to it amongst you That the Saints are set over us Bellarm. de SS beat L. I. c. 18 20. and take care of us and that the Faithful here on Earth are RULED and GOVERN'D by them By all which it appears with what Sincerity you pretend that all your Church teaches is only to pray to to the Saints in the same Spirit of Charity Bishop of Meaux's Expos Sect. IV. and according to the same Order of Fraternal Society with which you demand the Assistance of your Brethren living upon Earth And how false it is that you are taught to reduce all the Forms of your Addresses to this One Meaning Pray for us seeing you both direct the Faithful to recur to them for their Prayers Aid and Assistance and suppose them capable as Reigning together with Christ and Gods by Participation but especially as having the Care of the Faithful committed to them to Rule and Govern them to lend you Other Help and Assistance besides that of their Prayers and as I shall presently shew pray to them accordingly so to do 30. But Secondly We will examine this Point a little further for indeed the whole Mystery of this Service in the Church of Rome depends upon a right understanding of what Notion they have of the Saints above And because I will do this without any suspicion of Falsity I will deliver nothing but from Card. Bellarmine's own Words In his Book of the Eternal Felicity of the Saints De aeternâ felicitate SS lib. 1. cap. 4. among Other Reasons that he gives why the Place and State of the Blessed should be called the Kingdom of Heaven He has this for one Because all the Blessed in Heaven are Kings and all the Qualities of Kings do most properly agree to them The Just says He in the Kingdom of their Father shall be themselves Kings of the Kingdom of Heaven for they shall be Partakers of his Kingly Dignity and of the Power and Riches and other Goods that are in the Kingdom of Heaven Which is I suppose a plain Paraphrase of what he elsewhere says That they are Gods by Participation See before or Partakers of the Dignity and Power of God. 31. Having thus established His Foundation He now goes on to the practical Demonstration of it Lib. I. cap. 5. p. 20. Colon. 1626. The Goods says He of an Earthly Kingdom are usually reckon'd to be these Four Power Honour Riches and Pleasure An Earthly King has Power to command His Subjects If they do not obey Him He can punish them with Bonds Imprisonment Exile Scourging Death Again Kings will be Honour'd with an Honour almost above the Nature of Men for they will be adored upon the Knee nor will they vouchsafe oftentimes to hear those that speak to them unless in this bended posture and with their Face down to the Ground But yet as He afterwards shews this Power is mix'd with Infirmity this Honour oftentimes changed into Disgrace But with the Saints above it is much otherwise For their Power is exceeding great Ibid. pag. 26. and without any
mixture of Infirmity This He illustrates with a Story which at once shews what their Power is with reference to us and How they are pray'd to in the Church of Rome upon presumption of it St. Gregory says he relates in his Book of Dialogues Lib. iii. cap. 36. That a certain Holy Man being just ready to be slain by the Hangman whose Arm was stretch'd out and Sword drawn for that purpose cry'd out in that Instant Saint John hold him and immediately his Hand wither'd that he could neither put it down again nor so much as move it S. John therefore continues the Cardinal from the highest Heaven heard the Voice of his Client and struck his Executioner with this Infirmity so suddenly as to hinder the Stroke already begun This is the Power of those Heavenly Kings that neither the almost infinite distance of Place nor the Solitariness of a poor and uâ—â—â—m'd Righteous Man nor the multitude of Armed Enemies could prevent S. John from delivering his SUPPLIANT from the Danger of Death 32. I shall not need to transcribe what He in the next place adds concerning the Worship that upon this and other accounts is paid to the Saints beyond that of any Earthly Monarch But from what has been said I conclude That it is the Opinion of those in the Church of Rome that as the Council of Trent expresses it The Saints reign together with Christ and are Gods by Participation that is are made Partakers of the Dignity and Power of God. 2. That therefore whatever Intercourse the Faithful upon Earth may have with them it must be vastly different from what they have with their Brethren here below who are neither admitted to such a Dignity nor Partakers of this Power 3. That since the Saints are thus Kings in Heaven when those of the Roman Church address to them in a SUPPLIANT manner as their CLIENTS for Help and Assistance they do not do this in the same Spirit of Charity Expos Mr. de Meaux sect IV. nor after the same Order of Fraternal Society with which they would desire the Prayers of their Fellow-Christians yet living And 4. That seeing the Bless'd in Heaven have Power together with God of taking Care of us and bestowing Blessings upon us there is neither Truth nor Reason in that vain Pretence Reply p. 22. That all the Prayers that are made to them must be reduced to this One form PRAY FOR US but that we ought indeed to understand them to desire of the Saints what both their Principles allow them to do and their Words declare that they do desire viz. THEIR HELP and ASSISTANCE as reigning TOGETHER WITH Christ 33. But Thirdly I have yet more to say in Answer to this Evasion It is well known how much those Prayers you make to the Saints scandalized many of the most Eminent Men of your Church In Elencho Abusuum Wicelius doubted not to say of one of your Hymns that it was full of downright Blasphemy and horrible Superstition of others that they were wholly inexcusable Ludovicus Vives profess'd Lud. Vives Comm. in S. August de Civ dei lib. viii cap. 27. that he found little difference in the Peoples Opinion of their Saints in many things from what the Heathens had of their Gods and that numbers in your Church worshipp'd them no otherwise than God. Now this the Council of Trent could not but know and it then lay before them to redress it If therefore those Fathers had thought that there was no other form of Invocation allowable to the Saints than as you now pretend to Pray to them to Pray for us is it to be imagined that at such a juncture as this they would have taken no care about a thing so justly scandalous not only to the Protestants whom they desired to reduce but even to many of their own Communion How easie had it been for them to say That to satisfie the complaints of these Learned Men and of their Enemies and to prevent any mistakes of the like kind for the future it seem'd good to the Holy Ghost and to them to declare that in what terms soever the Prayers of their Church were conceived yet that the Ecclesiastical sense of them was in all one and the same viz. Pray for us But now instead of such a declaration and which such wise men in this case would never have omitted they regard no Complaints that were made against this Service but roundly decree an Invocation to be due to them and establish it upon the Old Foundation before-mention'd and which had given rise to all these excesses viz. that the Saints REIGN TOGETHER WITH CHRIST and were therefore in A SUPLIANT MANNER to be call'd upon and that for the obtaining benefits of God they were to fly not only to their Prayers but also to their Help and Assistance And when according to their Order for reciting the Missals and Breviaries they were again set out the one Four the other Six years after the Council was ended the Hymns and Prayers were left still as we see and not so much as the least Note in a Rubrick for a right Exposition of them 34. Nay I will go yet farther There was not only no Care taken then but at this day men are suffer'd to run without Censure into the same Excesses We know to what Extravagance Card. Bona Father Crasset and but the other day Doctor J. C. our own Countryman have gone and no One of your Church censures them for it Cassander immediately after the Council no less complain'd of these things than Vives and Wicelius before and that too was disregarded On the contrary whilst the Extravagances of these Votaries are encouraged the moderation of the others is censured by the highest Authority of your Church The Psalter of S. Bonaventure goes abroad with permission but the Comments of Lud. Vives are put in the Expurgatory Index and George Cassander's Works absolutely prohibited Crasset devotion veritable pref p. 2. If Advices are given from the Blessed Virgin to her indiscreet Worshippers All the Servants of the B. Virgin run to Arms to encounter him The Learned of All Nations write against him the Holy See condemns him Spain banishes him out of all its Dominions and forbids to Read or Print his Book as impious and Erroneous But if a Crasset in his Zeal for the Mother of God runs into such blasphemous Excesses as no pious Ears can hear without indignation If he rake together all that the Folly and Superstition of former Ages has said or done the most excessively on this Subject to make up a Volumn scandalous to that Church and Society that endures him not only the Divines of his Order approve it but his Provincial licenses it to be Printed the King's Permission is obtain'd for it and the Expounders themselves are so very good natur'd that they cannot see any harm in it And then let the World judge what your true
Doctrine as to the Invocation of Saints must be For 35. Fourthly Had the Council of Trent been of the same Opinion with Monsieur de Meaux I shall leave it to any reasonable man that will but be at the pains to examine your Offices to say whether there was not great need of some such Advertisement as I before said As for example In the Office of the Blessed Virgin you thus address to Her Officium B. Virg. p. 84. Antw. 1631. We fly to your protection O Holy Mother of God despise not our Prayers which we make to you in our Necessities but deliver us from all dangers O Glorious and ever Blessed Virgin And again Ibid. p. 103. Vouchsafe that I may be worthy to praise thee O Sacred Virgin Give me strength and power against thine Enemies Now that these Prayers are conceived in as formal terms as any can be to God himself is not to be deny'd I desire you therefore to tell me by what Rules of Interpretation by what Publick and Authentick Decree of your Church we are to expound a Prayer made to the Blessed Virgin that She would give strength and power into a desire that she would pray to God that He would do this 36. But however let us for one moment suppose this to be reasonable and try whither such a method of interpreting will carry us For instance thus you * Ibid. p. 497. Pray to the Apostles O ye just Judges and true Lights of the World we pray unto you with the Requests of our Hearts that ye would hear the Prayers of your Suppliants That is to say We do desire you in a friendly way and only after the Order of Brotherly Society though in complement we call our selves indeed your Suppliants and intreat you to hear our Prayers that you would Pray for us Ye that by your Word shut and open Heaven deliver us we beseech you by your COMMAND from all our sins That is you who by your Prayers to God are able to incline him either to shut or open Haven we intreat you that by YOUR COMMAND meaning only your Prayers you would deliver us that is to say would Pray to God that He would deliver us from all our sins You to whose COMMAND the Health and Sickness of all men are submitted Heal us who are sick in our Manners and restore us to vertue That is to say O ye Holy Apostles to whose command as far as Prayers may be so called the Health and Sickness of all is subjected forasmuch as your Requests can prevail with God to submit it to you Heal us i. e. Pray to God that He would Heal us who are sick in our manners and Restore us that is to say intreat God that He would restore us to Vertue 37. Such according to your Principles is the Paraphrase of this Prayer If this be a natural way of Expounding then be also your Pretences allow'd of But if to pray in such words as these meaning no more than what I have express'd be a downright mocking both of God and his Saints then let the World judge what we are to think of your Interpretations 38. But however for once let us allow even this too What shall we do with those Prayers where God and the Saints are both join'd together in the same Request As for instance Let Mary and Her Son bless us Officium B. Virg. pag. 105. Here I doubt it will be something difficult to reduce them to what you call the Churches Sense PRAY FOR US unless you pray to God too as well as to the Saints to pray to whom I cannot imagine for you 39. I shall add but one Consideration more from your Service of the Saints to overthrow your new Expositions but that such as I shall be very glad to receive an Honest Answer to For be it that in defiance of all Sense and Reason your Prayers to the Saints in what terms soever they be conceived must all be interpreted as you pretend Yet what shall we do in those Cases where the very Nature of the Service utterly refuses such kind of Colours As I. When in your Vows you vow'd as I before observed To God and the Blessed Virgin and to St. Benedict and to all the Saints that you would be obedient to your Superiours II. When in your Doxologies you give Glory to God and the B. Virgin Mary and last of all to Jesus Christ So Greg. de Valencia Praise be to God and the Virgin Mother Mary also to God Jesus Christ the Eternal Son of the Eternal Father be Praise and Glory So Card. Bellarmine closes this very Dispute of the Worship of Saints Honour and Glory be to God and to the most Holy Virgin Mary and to all the Saints So your Collector of the Lives of the Saints Contemplat pag. 23. Vers Open my lips O Mother of JESUS Resp And my soul shall speak forth thy Praise Vers Divine Lady be intent to my aid Resp Graciously make haste to help me Vers Glory be to JESUS and MARY Resp As it WAS IS and ever SHALL be So Dr. J. C. Now what you will think of all this I cannot tell See below but sure I am S. Athanasius pronounces it to be downright Idolatry and what no good Christian would ever be guilty of III. When in your Commendation of a departing Soul you bid him Rit Rom. Ord. Comm. Anim. Depart out of the World in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost of Angels and Archangels of Patriarchs Prophets Apostles and of all Saints as I have before at large recited it IV. When in the Confession of your sins you confess To God Almighty and the Blessed Virgin Mary Missale R. in Ord. Miss to S. Michael the Archangel to S. John Baptist to the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul and to all the Saints V. When in absolving your Penitents from them you join The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ Rituale Rom. de Sacr. Poenit. and the Merits of the Blessed Virgin and of all the Saints together for the remission of all his sins VI. When in your Conjurings against storms You contradict the Evil Spirit by the Vertue of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the Blessed Virgin. Rituale Fr. de Sales p. 77. VII When in your Excommunications you shut men out of the Church In the Authority of God Almighty the Father Son Pontific Rom. Ord. Excom Absol and Holy Ghost and of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul and of all the Saints VIII When in Absolving them from this Sentence you Remit this bond in the same Authority of God Almighty Ibid. and of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul. Lastly When in consecrating of a Church or Altar you Bid this stone be Sancti ✚ fied and Conse ✚ crated Ibid. de Consecrat Ecclesiae p. 124. in the Name of the Fa ✚ ther and of the S ✚ on and of the Holy ✚
Ghost and of the Glorious Virgin Mary and of all the Saints And again Let this Church be Sanc ✚ tified and Con ✚ secrated Ibid. p. 127. in the Name of Fa ✚ ther and of the S ✚ on and of the Holy ✚ Ghost to the Honour of God and of the Glorious Virgin Mary and of all the Saints Now in all these several instances there is no room for any such interpretation as you pretend in the Case of your Prayers but here either your hearts join in what your lips utter and then it is plain you give as Proper Divine Worship to the Saints as you do to God which you confess to be unlawful Or if they do not what is this but to speak words of Vanity in your most Solemn Service and in which you ought especially to take heed not to offend 40. Thus do the very Words of your Liturgies utterly refuse such an Exposition as you pretend to be your only meaning in all your Prayers to the Saints I will add yet one Consideration more to shew the insincerity of it Fifthly from the concurrent Practice of the most eminent Persons of your Church and whose Authority you cannot with any justice except against 41. Now of this the famous Psalter of S. Bonaventure may alone serve for a sufficient Evidence which as it has been publickly set forth and authorized amongst you so I need not tell you that the design of it was to apply all the Addresses that are made to God in the Psalms and Hymns of the Church nay and even the very Creeds to the Blessed Virgin. Psalterium S. Bonavent Psalm 2. Come unto Mary all ye that labour and are heavy laden and she shall refresh your Souls Come unto Her in your temptations and the Serenity of Her Countenance shall establish you Psal iv When I called upon thee thou heardest me O Lady and from thy high Throne didst vouchsafe to remember me Blessed art thou O Lady for ever and let thy Majesty be exalted for evermore Psal vii cvii. O Lady in thee do I put my trust deliver my Soul from mine Enemies O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good O give thanks unto His Mother for her Mercy endureth for ever 42. I might pass at this rare through all the other Psalms and to these add the Te Deum Speculum B. Virginis c. Benedicite Athanasian Creed c. all burlesqued to Her Honour But there has been so many large Collections of these already publish'd that I shall subjoin only one Prayer at the close of all O my Holy Lady Mary I commend to thy blessed Trust and especial Custody and into the Bosom of thy Mercy this day and every day and in the hour of my Death both my Soul and Body I commit all my Hope and Consolation all my Troubles and my Miseries my Life and the End of my Life to thee that by thy most Holy Intercession and Merits all my Works may be directed and disposed according to THINE and THY SONS Will. Amen 43. I will not now insist upon this that this Book has been often Printed among you with Licence and Commendation and particularly my Editions of it the one Italian and Latin Printed at Genoa 1606. with the Licence of the Superiors and submitted by the Translator Giovan Battista Pinello to the Censure of the Church the other at Leige in the same Year by le Sage But this last had the Honour of being particularly commended by the Vicar of that Church Permiss Jo. Chapeaville Leodii 17. Nov. 1606. and Censor of Books as a Piece that was profitable to be Printed and very piously and commendably to be recited by all Men in their private Prayers to the Honour of the B. Virgin. The Author of it is at this time a Canonized Saint in your Church and is now in his turn Worshipped by you If therefore you approve these Addresses as I presume you must be pleased to try 't will be a pretty expounding Task how you can reduce all these Hymns and Prayers to this One Sense of your Church PRAY FOR US But if you disallow these Addresses as what in truth they are Scandalous and Idolatrous what then shall we say if you pray to those as in Heaven now who whilst they lived were guilty of such desperate Superstitions 44. And now I am instancing in your Saints I cannot forbear presenting you with a Strain or two of your Pious but very Superstitious and Indiscreet St. Bernard and this too to try your Faculty of Expounding To thee O Holy Virgin Mary as to the Ark of God Vid. in Psal S. Bonav Leodii 1606. p. 238. as to the Cause of Things as to the Business of Ages do all look that are both in Heaven and Hell both they that have gone before us and we who now live and they who shall hereafter be born All Generations shall call thee Blessed O Mother of God! In thee the Angels have found Joy the Righteous Grace and Sinners Pardon for Ever Worthily do the Eyes of the whole Creation look upon thee because in thee and by thee and of thee the kind Hand of the Almighty hath re-created whatever he had created We embrace thy Footsteps O Mary and with most devout Supplication we fall down before thy blessed Feet We will hold thee and not let thee go till thou shalt bless us For thou art able c. Defence Append 2. Def. part 1. p. 89. 45. But I insist too long upon these Matters and therefore in stead of multiplying new Instances shall refer you to those I have already offer'd And from your Saints descend to the Heads of your Church Greg. VII Baron Ann. ad an 1080. T. xi p. 532. See Platina in his Life One of which thus piously call'd upon S. Peter and S. Paul at the Head of a Synod in Excommunicating the Emperour Henry IV. Anno 1080. in these Words Blessed Peter Prince of the Apostles and thou O Blessed Paul Doctor of the Gentiles Vouchsafe I beseech you mercifully to incline your Ears unto me and hear me And then after some Particulars too large to be transcribed He thus goes on Go to now I beseech you O Fathers and Holy Princes that all the World may know and understand that as you have in Heaven the Power of Binding and Loosing you have also on Earth Power over Empires Kingdoms Principalities c. For you have often taken away Patriarchates c. from the Wicked and Unworthy and have given them to Religious Men. Let the Kings and all the Princes of the World now learn how great you are and how much you can do and fear to undervalue the Command of your Church And execute Judgment on the aforesaid Henry so suddenly that all Men may know that he shall fall not by Chance but by your Power This is a blessed Prayer for a Pope to make and I doubt will be found to signifie
somewhat more than to pray to those Saints to pray for Him. If you think otherwise let us see your Paraphrase and then we shall be able the better to judge of it To conclude Let any Man but read over the late Books of Father Crasset and Dr. J. C. and then I will leave Him to believe if He can that all you mean in your Invocation of Saints is only to desire them to pray for you 46. And this may suffice to your first Pretence of the Interpretation you would put upon these Addresses As for the Authority you would be thought to have from Holy Scripture for them it is so very trifling as not to deserve a Consideration For who would not laugh at that Man that should seriously argue after this manner 1. When the Children of Israel were under Oppression Judges iii. 9. God raised up a Deliverer or Saviour for them who delivered them Therefore it is lawful to pray to Saints as our Saviours in Heaven Again 2. Acts vii 35. Galat. iii. 19. St. Stephen calls Moses a Ruler and a Deliverer of the Children of Israel and St. Paul a Mediator because at the delivery of the Law God sent it by his Hands to them Therefore we may now give the Titles of Mediators and Redeemers to the Saints departed with reference to our Spiritual and Eternal Concerns tho they neither are nor have been either Redeemers or Mediators to us 3. St. Paul tells Timothy 1 Tim. iv 16. That if he discharged the part of a faithful Pastor as He exhorted him to do He should be a blessed Instrument of Salvation both to Himself and Others Therefore we may now pray to Timothy as our Saviour in Heaven 47. Are not these Sir weighty Arguments And were you not resolved utterly to confound us when you alledged such Proof out of Holy Scripture as this But you have one Passage at least that will do our Work. Grace and Peace are the proper Gifts of God Revel 1.4 But this St. John wishes to the Seven Churches of Asia not only from God but also from the Seven Spirits which are before the Throne Therefore We may warrantably pray to the Blessed Virgin Let the Virgin Mary and Her Son bless us A notable Proof this and almost as terrible as that which follows The Holy Scripture says of Princes That they are Gods therefore we may pray to the Saints as Gods too But we will consider every part of it Grace and Peace are the proper Gifts of God. This is confess'd What will you infer from thence But these St. John wishes not only from God but also from the Seven Spirits I answer 1. If your own Gloss be good Gloss Ord. in loc Rhemists Test p. 700. those Seven Spirits are set to signifie the Seven fold Gifts of the Holy Ghost and your own Rhemists in their Annotations from whence I am apt to believe you borrow'd this Argument confess it may be well understood so But 2. Not to deal too strictly with you Let us allow these Seven Spirits to signifie Created Angels What will be the Consequence St. John wisheth all Grace and Peace to the Churches of Asia from God by the ministration of his Holy Angels whose Ministry He employs in dispensing His Graces and Blessings for the Preservation of His Church Therefore we may wish to the Church now Grace and Peace from Christ and the Blessed Virgin who is neither Angel nor Ministring Spirit nor that we know of any way employ'd by God for the Service of it Nay but this will not do yet We must carry it yet further St. John wishes all Peace and Happiness from God and his Holy Angels to the Church Therefore We may not only Wish the like from God by their Ministration but may solemnly pray to Saints and Angels themselves together with God for Grace and Peace And if this be your way of Arguing from Holy Scripture 't is well you have Infallibility of your Side for I am confident otherwise you would never persuade any Man by way of reasoning to submit to your Conclusions 48. But the Representer has yet a Passage to justifie the utmost Extravagance of former Times and prove even that Prayer which Bellarmine was fain to deny they ever used Of the Virgins commanding our Saviour by the Right which as a Mother she had over Him to be most agreeable to Holy Writ For does not the Scripture say of Joshua c. x. 14. That He spoke to the Sun and it stood still the Lord OBEYING the Voice of a Man This is an Argument that must be carefully look'd to or like Wit that depends upon a turn of Expression 't will be utterly lost And therefore in the Vulgar Latin and Doway Bibles this is a good Proof but in our own 't is none at all For as we render it it would be a most wild Inference thus to conclude Joshua pray'd unto God that the Sun might stand still and God hearkned unto his voice and answered his Request Therefore we may pray to the Blessed Virgin by the Right of a Mother to command her Son. But be it as he desires God obey'd the voice of Joshua i. e. as the Chaldee Paraphrast has it He accepted his Prayer as the Doway Bible it self expounds it Doway Bible in loc p. 488. He condescended to work so great a Miracle at the Instance of his Servant How will it even thence follow that we may desire the Blessed Virgin to command our Saviour by the Right of a Mother over him But such Twigs as these must be laid hold on when Men are resolv'd to keep to their Conclusion tho at the same time they have not so much as the shadow of a Proof to support it SECT II. After what manner it is that the Church of Rome prays to God through the Merits of Her Saints Reply sect xviii p. 23 24. This is the next Point to be considered by us and thus you establish it 49. Reply p. 23. You tell us that the Word Merit is Equivocal and misapplied by Me That the Truth of your Doctrine is I. To reduce all your Prayers to this Form That God would be pleased not to regard your Unworthiness but the Merits of our Redeemer ever supposed respect the Merits of his Saints also and for their sakes hear your Prayers and accept your Sacrifices II. That this is plainly shewn in your solemn concluding of All your Addresses in this manner Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Whereby it appears that you mean no more than to beg of God Almighty that he would vouchsafe to call to mind the glorious Actions and Sufferings of his Saints performed in and by his Grace and upon these Accounts accept you III. And finally That for this you have the Authority of the Holy Scripture it self 50. Answ For Answer to which Discourse I must first desire you to come a little out of the Clouds and not play with us
in ambiguous Terms whilst you charge Me with it The word Merit you say is Equivocal and the two Senses you give it are First To signifie that We do by our own Natural force alone deserve the Reward of Grace and Glory And in which Sense if you pretend that we charge you with pleading your own Merits you do certainly most falsly accuse us The other Sense you give the word is That our Good Works may be said to Merit because they apply the Merits of Jesus Christ to us and are the Means by which we attain Eternal Life in vertue of the Promises of God and Merits of our Blessed Redeemer In which were you sincere for all the impropriety of the Speech yet we should not be far from agreeing with you But now what is all this to your praying to God to hear you by the Merits of the Saints This may do well in its proper Article but here it serves only to amuse the Reader with that which is nothing to the purpose that so he may be disposed to forget what you were to prove Jam dic Posthume de tribus Capellis 51. You tell us then in the next Paragraph That you pray that God would not respect your own Unworthiness Reply p. 24. but regard the Merits of his Saints and for their Sakes i. e. for their Merits Hear your Prayers or accept your Sacrifices But where then is the Misrepresentation For this is the very thing we charge you with viz. That not content to Address your selves to God in the Name and through the Merits of our ONLY Mediator Jesus Christ you have sought out to your selves other Intercessors in whose Name and through whose Merits to offer up both your Prayers and Sacrifices to God. And whether we do not in this very justly accuse you let your Addresses themselves satisfie the World. O Blessed John the Baptist reach out thy Hand to us and be to us continually a Holy Intercessor to the Clemency of the most High Judge that through THY MERITS we may DESERVE to be freed from all Tribulation O God! by whose Grace we celebrate the Memories of thy Saints Saturninus and Sisinnius Grant that by THEIR MERIT we may be helped through our Lord. Mercifully accept O God our Offerings which we have made unto thee for the SAKE of the Passion of thy Blessed Martyrs Saturninus and Sisinnius that by their Intercession they may be made acceptable to thy Majesty And in the Breviary of Salisbury we find this to be a part of the Constant Service Be propitious we beseech thee O Lord unto us thy Servants Breviarium in usum Sarum in Servit B. Virg. par 2. through the glorious Merits of thy Saints whose Reliques are contain'd in this Church that by their pious Intercession we may be protected in all Adversities Grant we beseech thee Almighty God that the Merits of thy Saints whose Reliques are contain'd in this Church may protect us c. It were infinite to recount all the other Prayers which run in the same strain throughout all your Offices insomuch that the very * Missal Rom. p. 367. Canon of the Mass is infected with it I will mention only one Instance more which is indeed a singular one not so much because of the Expression of it wherein the General word of Merit is restrain'd to the particular Merit of his Death as because it was made to one who died in Actual Rebellion against his Prince and concerning whom therefore it was for some time debated amongst you Whether he were damn'd or saved BY the BLOOD of Thomas a Becket which he SHED for THEE make us to ascend to Heaven whither He is gone Mornay de la Messe p. 826. Saumur 1604. 52. It remains then that you do recur to the Saints not meerly for their Prayers but that by their Merits and Intercession they would obtain Grace and Pardon of God for you This is the Doctrine of your Catechism Catech Trid. par iij. p. 256. de Invoc SS n. 24. tit Sancti suis Meritis nos adjuvant That the Saints help us by their own Merits and are therefore the rather to be worshipped and invoked because they both pray continually for the Salvation of Men and that God bestows many Benefits upon us by their Merit and Favour 'T is from hence that the Master of the Sentences interprets your praying for their Intercession to be the same thing as to pray that by their Merits they would help you And Aquinas Aquin. 22dae q. 83. art 4. We pray to the Saints says he not to inform God of our Petitions by them but that by their PRAYERS and MERITS our Prayers may become effectual Bellarm. de Beat. SS l. 1. c. 17. We may say to the Saints says Card. Bellarmine Save me or Give me This or That provided we understand Give it me by thy Prayers or Merits So that in all this we say no more of you than what both your Doctrine and Practice warrant us to do 53. Let us see therefore how you excuse your selves in this Matter You say That your Concluding of all your Prayers Through Jesus Christ our Lord shews that you desire all at last by his Merits But indeed this is but a poor Shift and as a very Learned Man has long since told you Dr. Jackson Tom. 1. p. 941. that Close comes in in your Addresses much after the same manner that the mention of a certain Sum of Money does in Deeds of Trust only pro formâ And you are never the less guilty for this Conclusion of what we charge you with viz. That you join the Merits and Intercession of the Saints with the Merits and Intercession of Christ for Pardon and Acceptance And to the end that you may see what sensless Petitions you hereby make to God in these Addresses I will only take one of your Prayers in the literal meaning of it Idem ib. and apply it in a plain Paraphrase to your Pretensions by way of Petition to some Earthly Prince Thus then you pray upon the Third of May. Grant we beseech thee Almighty God that we who Adore the Nativity of thy Saints Alexander c. may by their Intercession be deliver'd from all Evils that hang over us through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now changing only the Names this according to your Exposition will be the Paraphrase of it I beseech your Sacred Majesty that you would vouchsafe to pardon my Offences against you and deliver me from those Evils that hang over me for them at the Intercession of your Lord Chancellor c. and in Honour of this his Birth-day and that for the Sake of the Prince your Son our Royal Lord and Master In this extravagant Petition the very Transcript of the foregoing Prayer he must be blind who sees not that the Conclusion of it for the Princes sake c. is very impertinent and does not at all hinder but that the
Request is formally made by the Interest of my Lord Chancellor and in Honour of his Birth-day And therefore that notwithstanding this Conclusion which is really the Remains of your Old Forms before ever any New Intercessors were put into them you remain justly chargeable with what I accused you of That you make the Saints joint Intercessors with Christ to God and desire not only through his Merits but by theirs also to obtain your Requests 54. As for your last Pretence of Holy Scripture for this Practice it is every jot as little to the purpose in this as I have shewn it to be in the foregoing Point 1. God tells Isaac say you that he would bless him Reply p. 25. for his Father Abrahams sake Moses praying for the People desires God to remember Abraham Isaac and Jacob i. e. Because God in pursuance of his Covenant made with Abraham blessed his Son and Moses put him in mind of that Covenant to appease his Anger that he should not destroy the Israelites Therefore it is lawful now to pray to God not only by the Merits of Christ the only Mediator of God's Covenant with us but also of the Saints too for Pardon and Salvation 2. God in remembrance of his Promise made to David Reply ib. shew'd Mercy unto Solomon for his Sake Therefore Solomon might have urged to God the Merits of David for Pardon of his Sins and therefore we who have another and better and only Advocate may address to God by the Merits and Intercession of the Saints for Forgiveness I wonder you did not put in the City Jerusalems Merits too to prove that we may not only pray through the Merits of the Saints but of their Cities also For the Text seems as express in this as in the other 1 Kings xi 32. But he shall have one Tribe for my Servant David's sake and for Jerusulems sake the City which I have chosen out of all the Tribes of Israel 3. What you mean by your last Passage Reply ib. I must confess I cannot divine unless you think that because Elijah who was sent by God's express Command to make a Proof of his Divinity before all the People of Israel who were gone after Baal began his Prayer with that usual Character of his being the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob it was therefore through their Merits that the Fire came down from Heaven and burnt up his Sacrifice SECT III. In which the Arguments offer'd by the Vindicator for the Establishing of this Worship are particularly Consider'd and their Weakness laid open 55. Hitherto we have been clearing the matter of Fact what your Practice in this Invocation of Saints is I come now in the next place to examine your Arguments and see what grounds you have to support so great a Superstition And First for what concerns the Holy Scripture I find you do not much care to be try'd by that You plead Possession for your Warrant and are resolved that shall be sufficient till we by some better right can throw you out of it Now in this I cannot but commend your discretion for indeed those who go about to found this Article upon the Authority of Holy Writ do in the Opinion of many of your own Church but loose their Labour See Defence of the Expos p. 8. in annot since as they tell us for the Old Testament the Holy Patriarchs and Prophets that lived before Christ's Incarnation were not yet admitted into Heaven and therefore were not Capable of being pray'd to and for the New it was not express'd there for fear of Scandalizing the Jews and least the Gentiles should have been thereby moved to think that the Worship of new Gods had been proposed to them 56. Wherefore passing by the Holy Scripture which you look upon as unfit to be appeal'd to in this Case let us come to the Possession you so much boast of And see how you defend it against those Arguments I offer'd to prove That this Custom of Calling upon the Saints had no footing in the Church before the latter End of the IV. Defence ibid. Century and was then but beginning to creep into it And to reduce your Confusion to the clearest Method I can I will distinctly consider your Allegations in these two Periods First Of the first 300 Years wherein I affirm that there was no such practice in the Church Secondly Of the Fourth Century towards the latter End of which I confess it began to appear tho still with very great difference from what you now Practise I. PERIOD That the Custom of Praying to Saints had no being in the Church for the First 300 Years 57. Now for this I shew'd you in my Defence Defence of the Expos Art. 3. p. 6. That the Fathers of the IV. Century did certainly herein depart from the Practice and Tradition of the Ages before them because * That you were not able to produce so much as One Instance out of the first three Centuries of any such Invocation * But rather were forced to Confess that nothing of that kind was to be found amongst them * That this was in effect what your greatest Authors Card. du Perron Card. Bellarmine and even the Bishop of Meaux himself had done * And that indeed your own Principles oblige you to this Acknowledgment seeing you both allow that without believing that the Saints departed go forthwith to Heaven they could not have pray'd to them and yet cannot but say that this the Holy Fathers of the first three Ages did utterly deny These were my Arguments let us see how you clear your Possession from the force of them 58. First Reply p. 17. §. 13. You clap a Marginal Note upon my Assertion in earnest of your future Civility Primitive Fathers CALUMNIATED by the Defender And to wipe off this Calumny you undertake to shew that they did Pray to the Saints within the First 300 Years This is I confess to the purpose and if you can do it let the Note of Calumny stick upon Me but indeed I rather think that this Undertaking will fix another and a much more proper Note upon You. But let us hear your Proofs Ibid. And first you say My Brethren the Centurists of Magdeburg acknowledg that Origen prayed to Job and admitted the Invocation of Angels 59. Answer If this be true then Sir I tell you in one word that my Brethren the Centurists were mistaken and that considering the time they wrote in is no great Wonder But now did you never hear in your Life that your Brethren Erasmus Sixtus Senensis Possevin Bellarmine Baronius Labbé Du Pin c. have all confess'd that neither the Tracts nor Comments upon Job were Origen's Has no one ever told you Secondly Replique au roy de la Grande Bretagne liv v. c. 13. p. 982. that another of your Brethren Card. du Perron has utterly rejected the Authority of Origen as an incompetent
there as if they were now present with him and accordingly he Apostrophe's the City Jerusalem p. 426. The whole Catholick Church p. 428. A. All the People of God ibid. B. The Blessed Virgin ibid. C. Holy Simeon p. 429. B. And so concludes all joyning with that Blessed Man in his Address to our Saviour Christ And tho his Expressions may be very high as the whole Sermon is yet we cannot but think it very unreasonable to conclude the dogmatical Sense of the Church from the Rhetorical flights of a single Man were the Piece otherwise never so Genuine But indeed it is worthily rejected for the reasons before mentioned by the Learned Criticks both of your and our Communion 66. This then is the sum of your Arguments to Establish this Practice in the first three Centuries Were it necessary after what has been done by so many better hands to recount the Opinions of those Holy Fathers as to this Point I should certainly be able to make some better Proof of the Antiquity of our praying to God only than you have been able to do of your Addressing to the Blessed Virgin and to the Saints 67. In the Epistle of the Church of Smyrna concerning the death of Polycarp Anno 167. we find that the Jews had perswaded the Heathens that if they suffer'd the Christians to have the body of that Holy Martyr they would leave Christ to Worship Polycarp Apud Euseb Eccles Hist lib. iv c. 15. p. 109. B. Ed. 2. Vales Paris 1678. Not knowing says that Letter that it is not possible for us to leave Christ who hath suffer'd for the Salvation of all those that are saved in the World nor to serve or religiously Adore any other For as for Jesus Christ We Adore Him as being the Son of God. But as for the Martyrs we love them as the Disciples and Imitators of the Lord. And that very justly considering their insuperable Zeal which they bore to their King and Master and God grant that we may be both the Disciples of their Piety and partakers of their Glory 68. This is indeed the true Spirit of Christianity and the exact account of the Honour we now pay to the Saints We Adore only our Saviour Christ as the Son of God Edit Usser and therefore as the Ancient Latin Translation of this Letter reads it we pray to no other But for the Saints we Love and Honour them we recite and magnifie their noble Acts We encourage our selves by their Examples to the like performances as those who earnestly desire to be partakers of their Glory This is all the Honour they are now capable of receiving and this was all that the Primitive Church in those best Ages was ever known to have given to them Irenaeus lib. ii c. 57. p. 218. Ed. Paris 1675. 69. The Church of Christ says Irenaeus does nothing by the Invocation of Angels nor by any other perverse Curiosity but by addressing her Prayers purely and only and openly to the Lord who has made all things 70. * In Rom. l. viii c. 10. Tertull. de Orat. cap. 1. Cypr. de Orat Dom. Origen tell us that to Invocate the Lord and to Adore God are the same thing So do Tertullian and Cyprian using the words to Pray and to Adore promiscuously in the same signification In a word this was the constant Doctrine of those first Ages and I will chuse to deliver it in the words of that Father whom you have especially alledged to the contrary We Worship says †Orig. contr Cels lib. viii pag. 386. Ed. Cantabr anno 1658. Origen the one only God and his one only Son and Word and Similitude with our utmost Supplications and Honours bringing our Prayers to the God of all things through his only begotten Son * Ibid. 395. We must pray to God only who is over all and to his only begotten Son the first born of every Creature and beseech Him as our High-Priest to carry our Prayers which we make to Him to his God and our God to his Father and the Father of all those that live according to the Word of God. (a) Ibid. pag. 400. This is our Profession of Faith which we constantly maintain as long as we live by the blessing of God and of his only Son Jesus Christ who was manifested amongst us As for the favour of others if that be to be look'd after We know that thousands of thousands stand before him and ten thousand times ten thousand minister unto Him. These as our Brethren and Friends when they see us imitating their Piety towards God work together to the Salvation of those that CALL UPON GOD and PRAY as they OUGHT to do 71. I will add but one Testimony more in a matter both so plain in its self Novatian de Trinitate c. xiii p. 17. A. Ibid. C. D. ad fin Tertull. Paris 1675. and so often insisted upon by others and it is of Novatian proving the Divinity of Christ from the Churches praying to him For none but God says he knows the Secrets of the Heart as our Saviour did If Christ be only a Man how is He every where present to those that Call upon him Seeing this is not the Nature of a Man but of God to be able to be present in every place If Christ be only Man why is a Man called upon as a Mediator in Prayers seeing the calling upon a Man is judged of no value to give Salvation If Christ be only Man why is any Hope put in Him seeing that Hope is represented as Accursed that is placed in Man 72. Such was the Opinion of the Church in the first three Centuries As for that extraordinary discovery you are pleased next to make Reply p. 19. §. 14. That all you do in your Liturgies is to beg of God to hear the Prayers of his Saints and that for this you are able to furnish Me with many Examples out of the ancient Liturgies and Fathers within the first 100 Years it is so false an Assertion and so vain an Undertaking that either you must be ignorant even to astonishment both in the Doctrine of your own Church and in the Acts of Primitive Antiquity or else most certainly you never believed either what you say or what you promise 73. But tho you are not then able to answer my Challenge of producing any Warrant from the Fathers of the first 300 years for this Doctrine and Practice it may be you are able at least to answer my Presumption from those times against it viz. That those Fathers did not believe that the Souls of the Just went streight to Heaven and therefore by your own Principles could not have believed that they ought to be prayed to as there 74. Reply To this you say Reply p. 15. §. 12. That you are not bound to defend every Argument that Bellarmine and Suarez bring especially when Others of your Writers think them
imagined Affliction keeps men close to their duty whereas Prosperity too often corrupts the best manners When it pleased God to convert the Empire to Christianity there were but too many instances of Heathen Customs accommodated to the principles of the Gospel and this was one Whether it were that they could not so soon forget their ancient Rites or that they thought it a religious policy to extend the pale of the Church by suiting Christianity as much to the Heathen Ceremonies as it was possible and to dispose men thereby the more readily to embrace it Or whether finally that simplicity of the Gospel which suited well enough with a State of persecution was now thought too mean for an Establish'd Church the Religion of the Emperour and they were therefore willing to render it more pompous and set it off with greater lustre in the Eyes of Men tho in so doing they a little departed from the purity of their lower and better State. 90. Let us add to this the Opinion which then began to prevail among those Holy Fathers of the particular intercession of the Saints for us and which both the prayers that were made in those days at the memories of the Martyrs and the Miracles God was sometimes pleased to work there not to say any thing of the Visions and Apparitions that were sometimes thought to be seen there very much confirm'd them in Now this naturally prepared the way for the Invocation which follow'd upon it For now the Poets began instead of their Muses to call more Christianly upon the Saints and Martyrs to assist them The Orators following the Genius of the Age indulged themselves all the liberty of their Eloquence in Apostrophe's to the Saints at their Memories And as things seldome stop in their first beginnings by degrees through the Ignorance of some and superstition of more they fell into a formal Invocation about the beginning of the Vth. Century 91. But here another accident fell out for the carrying on of this Service For about this time Nestorius began to teach that men ought not to call the Blessed Virgin the Mother of God. Now this made some think his design was secretly to revive the Heresie of Arrius or Sabellius under a new Cover and their Zeal for the Divinity of Christ made them in the Council of Ephesus Anno 431 condemn his Opinion as Heretical and in Opposition to Him they fell into the contrary extream of an immoderate magnifying of Her tho' as I shall presently shew they still continued within much better bounds than you do now It being almost Three Hundred years after this before ever the Invocation of Her or the Saints was publickly Establish'd in the Church And this brings me to my next Proposal which was Secondly II. PERIOD To consider what Grounds this Superstition had in the IVth Century 92. And here first to what I said concerning the first beginnings of this Invocation viz. That the most part of your Allegations from this Age were rather Rhetorical flights than formal prayers you return very pleasantly Reply That the Rhetorick lies wholly at my door who fly to so poor a shift That these passages are some of the duriores loci more difficult places which some only nibbled at Others could not digest and I shift off under the notion of Rhetorical Flights or Novelties 93. Answ One would think by this Droll you had been lately reading the judgment of your University of Doway concerning Bertram Altho say they we do not much value that Book yet since he has been often Printed and is read by many and that in other ancient Catholick's we tollerate many Errors and extenuate or excuse them often times find out some contrivance or other to deny them or to set a convenient Gloss upon them when they are Opposed to us in disputes or in engaging with our Adversaries we do not see why we should not allow the same Equity to Bertram 94. But what now is this shifting Why I said that which all the learned Men in the World must allow to be true viz. That the Fathers of the IVth Age were many of them great Orators and made use of Rhetorical Addresses to the Saints And that from those conditions they sometimes expresly put into their Writings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. If thou hast any sense If thou hast any concern for what is done here below and the like we may reasonably conclude that this was all they meant even where they do not express any such thing 95. But did not those Fathers do somewhat more than this Can all their Expressions be fairly reduced to such Apostrophe's To this I have already said that We do acknowledge that about the latter end of this Century S. Basil Gregory Nazianzen Gregory Nyssen amongst the Greeks and their great Imitator S. Ambrose among the Latins did begin to Invocate the Saints And had you thought fit to consult that Excellent Treatise to which I referr'd you Discourse of Worship of Saints in Answer to Mr. de Meaux's Appeal to the IV. Age. or rather to take notice of what was said there for I am apt to believe you did Consult it I should not have been troubled with these impertinences here And therefore tho it were not difficult to find some considerable faults with those few passages you have alledged from those Holy Men as when you say that S. Basil exhorts those who are in Tribulatian to flie to the Saints those who are in joy to have recourse to them whereas He only Historically relates what they did do He says he who is afflicted flies to them He who is in joy runs to them yet I shall quit all to you and without either shifting or nibling leave you to make the most you can of them 96. But then that you may not put any more such Crude notes upon your Reader as you have done here where you say That Protestants grant Praying to Saints to have been established in the IVth Age I will very briefly transcribe from two Learned Men of our Church some considerable differences between what the Fathers of this Century did and what you do now and of which if you will not yet be perswaded to take any notice I hope at least all indifferent persons will see by them how impertinently you alledge their Authority for your Excuse First That in your Church Ushers answer to a challenge P. 409. Prayer to Saints is look'd upon as a part of Worship that is due to them insomuch that as I have shewn Cardinal Bellarmine places it among one of those Advantages that accrues to them upon their Canonization But this those Holy Fathers never believed on the contrary they absolutely define prayer as a service proper to God only and argued against the Arrians upon this very Topick that Christ must needs be God because the Church prayed to him If you pretend that there are two sorts of Prayers one proper to God
another that is not I reply 1. That this is false because as we have seen all Prayer is a Religious Worship and therefore proper to God only Secondly It concludes nothing because you offer the most proper sort of Prayer for Help and Assistance to the Saints that you can do to God himself P. 401. Secondly In your Church you allow mental Prayer as well as Vocal to be made to the Saints But in the Primitive this was reserved as peculiar to Him who searcheth the Heart and alone knoweth the Secrets of all the Children of Men. P. Ibid. c. Thirdly In your Church it is resolved that the Saints are capable of hearing and knowing your requests In the Primitive this was never determined and the contrary seems to have been the most generally received P. 405. Fourthly In your Church formal Prayers are made to the Saints But the Addresses of these Holy Fathers were either wishes only or requests of the same nature with those which are in this kind usually made to the living where they who are requested be evermore accounted in the Number of those that pray for us but none of those that are prayed unto by us P. 408. Fifthly In your Church the Saints are made not only joynt Petitioners with us but Advocates too and that to plead not only Christs Merits but their own likewise But against this these Fathers openly protested as an open derogation to the high prerogative of our Saviors meritorious Intercession and a manifest encroachment upon his Great Office of Mediation P. 410.416 Sixthly In your Church it is thought a more proper way of access and a surer means of obtaining your requests to address by some Saint to God than to go immediately to the Throne of Grace through our Saviour Christ But this those Fathers earnestly opposed exhorting all men to go directly to God by his Son Jesus Christ Seventhly In your Church the Saints are indifferently called upon all the World over Discourse in Answer to Mr. de Meaux's Appeal to the IVth Age. p. 82. c. which does in effect attribute a Divine perfection viz. That of Omnipresence to them But in the Primitive Church those who sought the Intercession of the Saints limited their presence to some determinate places as particularly to their Memories where they thought them within Hearing and did not call upon them indifferently every where Eightly This in your Church is an establish'd practice they who oppose it are declared to do wickedly and an Anathema is pronounced against them on that account But in the Primitive there was no Rule or Order for it it was the effect of a private and voluntary Zeal encouraged it may be by the Guides of the Church but no part of the established Service of it 97. And this may suffice to shew how vain your pretences to the Antiquity even of this Age are to warrant your Superstition and upon what slender grounds you affirm after your Master the Bishop of Meaux that this Invocation of Saints was Establish'd nay that we grant it was Establish'd in the Fourth Age. But to convince you yet more with what little reason you either boast of this or tax us with receding from our old principle of being tryed by the Fathers of the First Four General Councils upon this account I will now make you a more Liberal offer and that is to prove if you can any Authentick Establishment of this Service in the Church I do not say now in the Sixth Century but in the Seventh Nay or even before the latter end of the Eighth In short I do affirm that the first solemn Establishment of it was in the Second Council of Nice 787. and indeed that Synod which decreed the Worship of Images in opposition to the Second Commandment was the most proper to define the Religious Invocation of Saints contrary to the First And because there is something almost as bad in the manner of the Establishment as in the thing it self I will close all with a brief account of it 98. About the end of the Sixth Century both the Worship of Images and the Invocation of Saints having taken deep root in the minds of many Superstitious persons Controversies began to arise about them and generally the same persons were found to be either Friends or Enemies to both In the year 754 Constantine Copronymus called a Synod of 338 Bishops to Examine into these matters Baron ad Ann. 754. N. 38. Spondane Ibid. N. 6. and both the Invocation of Saints and Worship of Images utterly condemned by them 99. Binnius in Syn. Const p. 1663. T. VI. Concil Labbe Thirty years after this Council the Abettors of there Superstitions prevailing another Anti-Synod Was convened by the Authority of the Empress Irene at Nice In †Action VI. this the Acts of the former Council of Constantinople were recited and instead of the Canons which they made in condemnation of this Worship ‖ Defin. XV. XVII two others were read in their Names Establishing of it How this came to pass it is not known but this the †Annot. Epi-Phan in def XVII Nicene Fathers themselves acknowledge that the other Synod had established the quite contrary Nay they were such Enemies to this Invocation that Binius tells us they exacted a solemn ‖ Binnius Annot in Concil Const T. VI. p. 1663. Baron l. c. Oath of all their party That they would never invocate the Saints Apostles Martyrs or the Blessed Virgin. And yet have these good Fathers transmitted down to Posterity those two spurious Canons of the Council of Constantinople as approving that very Worship which the Council in the true definitions of it had utterly disclaimed 100. As for the Synod of Nice its self if the definitions there made were of any force that of Frankford seven years after has utterly taken it away Act. Concil Franc. in lib. Cant. praef in l. 1. in which it was so wholly abrogated and annulled as not to be placed in the number of Synods or be any otherwise esteem'd of than that of Ariminum And I should be glad you would find me any other but pretended establishment of it before your Synod of Trent in the very last Age. I have only now remaining in the last place to shew SECT IV. What our Reasons are against this Service 101. You had ask'd me in your Vindication What Authoritie have you to oppose us You say that to invocate Saints is repugnant to Gods Word Vindic. p. 30. Shew that word if you cannot we are in possession and the Antiquity and Un-interruptedness of our Doctrine besides the reasonableness and innocency of it confirms us in our belief 102. To this I answered That every text of Scripture that appropriated Divine Worship to God alone was a demonstration against you Def. pag. 9. And that that one passage of St. Paul Rom. X. 14. How shall they call upon bim in whom they
have not believed were not men willing to be contentious might End the Controversie And for the Authority you speak of that it was rediculous to pretend prescription for that which has not the least foundation neither in Holy Writ nor in Primitive Christianity of which not one instance appears for the first Three Hundred years after Christ and much to the contrary 103. Reply p. 21. §. 16. To this you now reply in your Margin with great Assurance Protestants destitute of Scripture Proofs against the Doctrine of Invocation of Saints But all you have to say in the Book is That you do not give Divine Worship to the Saints nor call upon them in that strict sense in which they are Duties only to be paid to God. That is to say you play with Words and make use of such distinctions as if they were allowed a man might evacuate any other of Gods Commands without a possibility of being confuted And I desire you to tell me what answer you would make an Impudent Woman that should give her Husbands Bed to another and being charged by you for breaking the Seventh Commandment should tell you that you were not to be so uncharitable as to judge of what she did by the External Act that the Law forbad only lying with another man as with her Husband and that in this strict sense she was still Innocent by reserving that highest Degree of Conjugal affection to him only the giving whereof to another would make her guilty 104. But since you are so desirous to know what our Reasons against this Invocation are I will now very freely lay them before you if you will first give me leave only to prepare the way for them by stating truly the difference between us in this matter which you are wonderfully apt either to mistake or to palliate 105. You tell us in your Vindication Vind. p. 30. Repl. p. 11. Expos Sect. IV. p. 5. Papist Rept N. 2. p. 2. That All you say is that it is lawful to pray to the Saints and so again in your Reply The difference you say between us is Whether it be lawful for us to beseech or intreat them to pray for us Monsieur de Meaux in the same moderate way tells us that the Church teaches that it is profitable to pray to the Saints And the Representer from the Council of Trent says of a true Papist That his Church teaches him and he believes that it is Good and profitable to desire the intercession of the Saints reigning with Christ in Heaven In your Discourses with those of our Communion there is nothing more Ordinary with you than to make them believe that you value not praying to the Saints nor Condemn any for not doing it That if this be all they scruple in your Religion they shall be received freely by you and never pray to a Saint as long as they live Nay I have heard of some who have gone so far in this matter as to venture their Religion upon it that you do not necessarily require the practise or profession of this service at all nor pronounce any Anathema against us for opposing of it 106. But this is not ingenuous nor as becomes the Disciples of Christ For tell me now I beseech you If we unite our selves to your Church will you not oblige us to go to Mass with you Or can you dare for our sakes to alter your Service and leave out all those things that relate to the Blessed Virgin and to the Saints in it Shall we be excused from having any thing to do with your Litanies and Processions your Vespers or your Salves Or will you purge all these too in Order to our Conversion When we lie in our last Agonies will you be content to Anoint us in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost and leave the Angels Arch-Angels Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles Martyrs Confessors Virgins and all the Saints out of the Commission And when our Souls are now expiring shall we be sure you will not then at least trouble us with that long Beadroll which your Office prescribes to be call'd upon in that Ceremony If you have indeed the Liberty to do this why do ye not use it and remove so great a stumbling block as this out of our way But if you cannot dispense with these things for our common Conversion how shall we believe that you can do it to satisfie a private Proselyte 107. The truth is Invocation of Saints in your Church is not esteemed so indifferent a matter as you would have it thought to be It is a Worship you suppose due to them And to which they acquire a right by their Canonization So Cardinal Bellarmine informs us And therefore in your Profession of Faith set forth by the order of Pope Pius IVth you are obliged with a firm Faith to believe and profess that the Saints who reign together with Christ are to be Venerated and Invoked And tho the Alarm which the Council of Trent was in upon the News of the Popes sickness and the haste which thereupon they made to conclude that Synod permitted them not to frame any Canons in this last as they had done in the other Sessions yet the materials put together in the Chapter shews us what Anathema's would have been thunder'd against us Concil Trid. Sess 25. For to take it only as it lies in that Session There we find the Bishops and Pastors of the Church commanded to teach what therefore I hope is undoubtedly the Churches sense in this point That the Saints who Reign together with Christ offer up their Prayers to God for Men That it is Good and Profitable in a suppliant manner to call upon them And that for the obtaining benefits of God by his Son Jesus Christ our Lord who is our only Saviour and Redeemer we should flie to their Prayers Aid and Assistance They declare that those who deny which you know we all do that the Saints who enjoy Eternal Happiness in Heaven are not to be invoked or say that this Invocation is Idolatry as we generally believe it to be or that it is contrary to the Word of God or derogatory to the Honour of the One Mediator between God and Man Christ Jesus or that it is foolish to supplicate those who Reign in Heaven in word or in mind do think WICKEDLY 108. These are the words of your Council If therefore you permit your Prosolytes to profess what they do not believe if you receive those as good Catholicks into your Church whom nevertheless you know to remain still infected with wicked Opinions contrary to the Doctrine and Practise established amongst you If you allow them to assist at your prayers without any intention to joyn in them nay in an Opinion that they could not pray with you without committing a grievous sin Then go on to make folks believe as you do that you oblige no body to pray to the Saints
and that they may be of your Church and yet still believe or do what they please in this matter But if otherwise this be all gross Hypocrisie if there be nothing but cheat and design in these pretences then may I humbly desire all sincere Members of our Communion to beware of such Guides as value not how they charge ours or palliate their own Religion so they may but by any means draw unwary men into their Net. 109. But the Council of Trent goes yet further It does not only Establish this Doctrine but in express terms Anathematises those who oppose it Concil Trid. Ibid. For in the close of that Chapter I but now mentioned thus it decrees If any one shall teach or THINK contrary to these Decrees let him be ANATHEMA All which your Epitomator Caranza thus delivers in short Caranza Summ. Sess XXV Conc. Trid. p. 482. Lovanii 1681. ' The Synod commands all those who have the care of Souls that they should teach the Invocation of Saints the Honour of Reliques and the Use of Images and that those who teach otherwise do think WICKEDLY And if any one shall teach or think contrary to these Decrees Let him be ANATHEMA 110. It remains therefore that your Church does teach and require of all its Members both the profession and practise of such an Invocation as I have before explain'd And of which I now undertake to shew 1. That it is repugnant to Gods Holy word 2. Contrary to Antiquity 3. That is unreasonable in the constitution and 4. Unprofitable and unlawful in the Practise I. It is repugnant to Gods Holy Word 111. And here First I will not doubt once more to tell you that to pray to Saints after the manner that it is now done in the Church of Rome is contrary to all those passages of Holy Scripture which attribute Religious Worship to God only such as Deut. VI. 13. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve Him and swear by his Name and again Chap. X. 12 20. XIII 4. c. All which our Saviour Christ has taught us to interpret with such a restrictive term as excludes all others from a share in our Service Mat. IV. 10. It is Written Thou shalt Worship the Lord thy God and Him ONLY shalt thou serve I have already shewn that all Prayer made to a person that is absent with a Confidence that he is able both to know our wants and to hear our Prayers and to answer our desires is in its own nature a Religious Worship Now then from these places of Holy Scripture I thus argue It is repugnant to Gods Word to give any proper Acts of Religious Worship to any but God only but all such prayer as is made in your Church to the Saints departed are proper Acts of Religious Worship and therefore it must be contrary to Gods Word to pray to any but God only 112. Nor am I here at all concern'd in your distinctions of a Supreme and an Inferior Religious Honour seeing both you and I are agreed that all Honour properly Religious such as Prayer is comprised under these prohibitions If I were I would then tell you that the Devil here did not require of Christ such a Supreme Worship but on the contrary acknowledged himself to have a Superior from whom He derived his Power of disposing of all the Kingdoms of the Earth and the Glories of them All he desired was to have some Religious Honour paid to Him. And our Saviour by alledging this Sentence of the Law against it Evidently shews that it is not only such a supream Religious worship as some of you pretend but that all such Honour in general is the peculiar service of God alone But this if you stand to your own principles you cannot object and for others what I have now said may suffice to obviate their pretences 113. Secondly What I have now concluded from this general Principle of Holy Scripture I will in the next place more particularly inforce from these other passages where the worship of Creatures is expresly prohibited In the Xth. of the Acts when Cornelius fell down at St. Peters feet and would have worshipp'd him ' he took him up saying I my self also am a man. Acts X. 25. It is a poor shift here to say that Cornelius would have worshipp'd St. Peter with a supream divine worship he was not certainly so ignorant as to think that when the Angel bid him send to Joppa for Simon Peter who lodged with Simon a Tanner he meant he should send for the great God that had made Heaven and Earth Nor is it of any more moment which others amongst you suggest viz. That Cornelius did well to adore him but that St. Peter out of modesty refus'd it And the answer he gave ' I my self also am a man utterly overthrows all such insinuations being as much as if he had said that no Man whatsoever was to be worshipped 114. But this will more evidently appear in another instance viz. that of St. John Revel XIX 10. Rev. XIX 10. XXII 8. who when in his Ecstacy he fell down and would have worshipp'd the Angel that discoursed with him the blessed Spirit utterly forbad him See says he thou do it not for I am thy fellow servant WORSHIP GOD. In which words are plainly establish'd these two Conclusions against this service 1st That Angels and so likewise the Saints being our fellow Servants are not to be worshipp'd 2dly That God only is to be adored 115. But St. Paul is yet more plain He exhorts the Colossians in general and in them us Colos II. 18. Colos II. 18. Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels It is answered by some among you that this was said in Opposition to the Heresie of Simon Magus who would have Sacrifice offer'd to the Angels Or at least of some Others who thought that tho' Christ had abolish'd the Law yet was it still to be observed out of respect to the Angels by whom it had been deliver'd But besides that I do not find any such thing charged by any of the Ancients upon Simon Magus as is pretended had S. Paul designed only to forbid one particular Act of Religious Worship being paid to them would he in General have said that they were not to be Worshipped Or had he intended to signifie the abolishing of the Law would he not have said so here as well as in his other Epistles and not have given such an obscure insinuation of it as when he meant to forewarn them against observing the Law to bid them have a care of worshipping Angels But the truth is the meaning of the Text is too plain to be thus eluded And I shall give it to you in the words of an ancient Father who lived in those very times in which you yet pretend such a service was establish'd Theoderet in loc Those who maintain'd
an Observance of the Law together with the Gospel taught also that Angels were to be worshipped saying that the Law was given by them This Custom remained a long time in Phrygia and Pisidia Upon which account the Synod of Laodicea in Phrygia forbad them by a Law to PRAY TO ANGELS But. 116. Thirdly And to come more immediately to the Worship of Invocation Rom. X. 14. The same Apostle in that Question Rom. X. 14. How shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed furnishes us with another maxime of Holy Scripture against all such Prayers viz. That no one is to be invoked in our religious addresses but He only in whom we believe But now Reason Scripture the Common Creeds of all Christians shew that we are to believe ONLY in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and therefore upon Him ONLY must we Call. As for your distinction that this indeed in one sense is very true but then in another and secondary sense Others besides God may be both believed in Reply p. 21. and called upon if you mean in a civil respect it is indeed very true but nothing to your purpose seeing in this sense we can no more believe in than we can call upon such persons as are absent from us and know nothing at all of us which is the Case of the Saints departed But for believing in a religious sense as it is properly an Act of Divine Faith and the foundation of that Assurance with which we call upon God by our Saviour Jesus Christ this admits of no distinction nor may it by any means or in any measure be applied without Sin to any other than God alone 117. I will add but one principle more of Holy Scripture against this Service and so close this first Point Rom. XIV 23. Rom. XIV 23. That whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin. But now those Prayers which have no foundation in Holy Scripture cannot be of Faith for says the same Apostle Rom. X. 17. Faith cometh by Hearing and Hearing by the word of God And therefore such Prayers must be Sin. If God has any where revealed it to you that you may lawfully give such a religious Worship to the Saints shew this and our dispute is ended But if you cannot do this nor by consequence cannot pray to them with any well grounded perswasion of Conscience that this is what God allows and what the Saints are capable of receiving I do not see how it can be avoided but that to you it must be sin so to do S. Basil Reg. Miral 78. cap. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As an ancient Father argues from this very principle in the like manner 118. For the Other part of this Service the intercession of the Saints for us I might to this Oppose all those passages of the New Testament where Christ is set forth to us as our only Mediator But I shall content my self with one single text 1 Tim. II. 5 6. There is one God 1 Tim. II. 5.6 and one Mediator between God and Men the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a Ransome for all Now if there be but one Mediator then Saints and Angels are not Mediators as you pretend If the foundation of Christs Mediatorship be this That he gave himself a Ransome for all then seeing the Saints have not done this it must follow that neither can they be our Mediators And this cuts off your new distinction of a Mediator of Intercession and a Mediator of Redemption which besides that it is the issue of your own Brains and was invented only to support a tottering Cause is here utterly destroy'd seeing the Foundation of Christs Mediating now in Heaven and appearing in the presence of God for us is by vertue of His being our Mediator of Redemption upon Earth and he therefore is become our intercessor there because He shed his bloud for our Expiation here This is that great Argument upon which the Author to the Hebrews so much insists Chap. IX X. And the Analogy of the High Priest under the Law making first the Expiatory Sacrifice for the people and then Entring into the Holiest to appear before God for them most evidently confirms it to us And this may suffice for the 1st Point That this Service is contrary to the principles of Holy Scripture II. It is Contrary to Antiquity 119. And here I am fallen into a vast Ocean and should never have ended should I go about particularly to shew how vain your pretences are to possession for this superstition It shall suffice me at present only to point out to you a few of those Remarks which others have more largely pursu'd and which do abundantly declare how little conformable the best and highest Antiquity has been to what you now practise 120. I have already given some short account of the first three Centuries And how little able you are to lay any claim to the Authority of them You have there seen what the Opinion was of those Holy Fathers touching the State of the Saints departed How they thought that they do not yet enjoy the Beatifick Vision and by consequence were not in a condition to be called upon by the Church on Earth I have shewn you the Fathers arguing against the Arrians for the Divinity of Christ from the Churches praying to Him and which evidently proves that they thought none but God was capable of such a service I have offer'd you the definition which those Holy Men gave of Prayer viz. That it was an Address to God a Conversing with God and the like and in all which they still restrain'd it to Him as His own peculiar prerogative There we find no mention of any calling upon the Blessed Virgin or the Saints No distinction of supreme and inferiour religious Worship of Mediators of Redemption and Intercession in short none of those Evasions with which all your discourses on this Point are now filled and without which indeed according to your principles it is impossible to explain it 121. But I will now add yet more It was a general custome in the third and following Ages concerning which we are particularly to enquire to pray for the Saints departed for Martyrs and Confessors Discourse of Purgatory and Prayers for the dead nay for the Blessed Virgin her self as has been elsewhere fully proved and I suppose you will not have the confidence to deny it Now let me appeal to any reasonable man to say could the Church in those times have prayed in a suppliant manner to the Saints as Reigning with God nay and Gods themselves by participation to aid and assist them when on the contrary they thought them in such a State as to need prayers to God for them Is it to be believed that they Addressed to those as Mediators and Intercessors with God for whom they themselves interceded to God It is a memorable remark that has been made to confirm the force
of this Argument that since the prevalency of this praying to Saints in the Church of Rome your publick rituals have had a notable change Those very Saints which in your ancient Missals you pray'd for being now a la Mode pray'd to Thus upon IV. Kalends of July in the Sacramentary of Pope Gregory I. Sacrament Greg. p. 112. above 600 years after Christ we find this Prayer made in behalf of S. Leo one of your Popes Grant O Lord that this Oblation may be profitable to the Soul of thy Servant Leo. But in the present Roman Missal the Collect is changed Missale Rom. pag. 6 12. and the Address made by the Intercession of the Saint now that was formerly made by way of Intercession for Him. Grant to us O Lord that by the Intercession of Blessed Leo this Offering may be profitable to US And of this change Decret lib. 3. tit 41. p. 1373 1373. Pope Innocent the 3d. gives this honest account Viz. That the Authority of Holy Scripture says that he ' injures a Martyr that prays for a Martyr wherein yet his Infallibility mislead him it being S. Austin and not the Scripture that said so ' and they do not want our Prayers but we theirs Which the Gloss thus more fully expresses It was changed viz. this prayer for Pope Leo because anciently they pray'd FOR Him but now TO Him. And from whence therefore we may warrantably infer that in those first Ages praying TO Saints was not establish'd seeing it was then the general Custom to pray FOR them 112. The truth is the whole face of the Ancient Church seems clearly opposite to the present practise Some doubted whether the holy Saints departed do at all concern themselves for us or conduce any thing to our Salvation So Origen And these to be sure never prayed to them Others made open opposition to such service So the Council of Laodicea S. Epiphanius Vigilantius and others before mention'd Now you Canonize Saints and esteem it necessary so to do to prevent mens praying to those in Heaven who are it may be at this time tormenting in Hell. But in those first Ages we find none of these Apotheoses De beatit SS lib. 1. C. 8. and Bellarmine himself could not find out any instance of any Saint that was Canonized before the VIIIth Century If we go into your Churches we find them filled with Altars and Chappels Images and Reliques of the Saints Candles are lighted up before them Incense is burned to their Honour But in those Primitive Ages not the least shadow is to be met with of any such Superstitions Your Books of Devotion are now filled with little else than advises how to pray to the Blessed Virgin to list your selves into her service to vow your selves to her Worship her Psalter and Rosary and Salutation is in every part of your performances Even the Catechism of the Council of Trent it self the most Cautious Book that has been set forth for some Ages in your Church having taught you first how to pray to God fails not to instruct you that you must in the next place have recourse to the Saints and make Prayers to them How comes it to pass if this were the primitive practise too that none of those Holy Fathers in any of their practical discourses have ever treated of these things Nay on the contrary they every where thunder in our Ears that Protestant Heretical Maxim that we must pray to GOD ONLY and that we ought not to address our selves to any other 123. In all your Sermons you call upon the Blessed Virgin for assistance In the Ends of your Books her Name seldom fails of standing in the same return of praise in which God and our Saviour are Glorified Your publick service and private prayers are all over-run with this superstition But is there any thing of this in the Primitive Rituals Look I beseech you into the account that has been given us of the publick service of the Ancient Church by Justin Martyr Tertullian nay by the Clementine Constitutions themselves Consult the Relation which Pliny made to the Emperour Trajan of their Manners Try those famous Liturgies of the Church within the first 100 years Reply p. 19. which no body has the happiness to be acquainted with but your self see if you can pick us up but one instance but some shadow of an instance to flourish with on this occasion 124. What are the Lives of your Saints but continued Histories of their Devotion to the Blessed Virgin and the Saints and the favours which upon that account they received from them But in the ancient Compilers of such kind of Discourses we find only dry accounts of their Piety towards God of their Zeal and Constancy in the Faith of their patience in suffering any thing rather than submit to such superstitious practises as these which the Heathens indeed would have drawn them to but which the Church utterly abhorred But for their knight errantry in Honour of the Blessed Virgin for watching whole Nights before her Images or in her Chappels for turning Vagabonds in order to the visiting her Chamber at Loretto or fetching a Feather from Compostella of this New Method of Piety there are not the least traces 125. I might run out these remarks into almost infinite Examples were they not things as well known as your contrary superstition is notorious But I shall reserve these and some other Observations of the like kind till you think fit to call me to account for them In the mean time I conclude from this short specimen I have here given that certainly the face of the Church must be very much changed as to these things Or otherwise that so great a difference could not possibly be found in the Lives the Writings the Actions the Customs the Opinions the Expressions Prayers Practises of those holy Fathers from what we see and lament in your Church at this day I go on thirdly to shew III. The Unreasonableness of this Service 126. And for that I shall offer only this one plain Argument If the Saints cannot ordinarily hear your prayers nor are able to attend distinctly to those Addresses that are made to them If those whom you Canonize are not indeed such as you suppose but many at this day tormented in Hell upon whom you call for assistance in Heaven If some of those to whom you pray never had any being but either in the Heralds Office or in the fruitful Womb of a Legendaries Brain Then it cannot be doubted but that to pray to the Saints must be the most unreasonable Devotion in the World you speak to the Wind and call upon them to as little purpose as if you should here in England make an Address to a Man in China or Tartary and you might as well have continued the Deities as you do the practise of the ancient Heathens in this service It being altogether as wise a Devotion to pray
to a Jupiter or an Apollo that never lived in the World as to a St. George or a St. Christopher that never had any more being in it than they And yet were we now to inquire into these Circumstances without a full knowledg of which this Invocation can never be a reasonable service what uncertain accounts should we receive from you For In his suppress'd Edition Expos of Mr. de Meaux Sect. IV. p. 7. 127. First As to the main foundation of all Whether the Saints hear your prayers In what doubt is your Bishop of Meaux still in his Exposition and you know he was once in a great deall more All he has to say is that you teach That your prayers to the Saints are very profitable Whether it be that they know them by the Ministry and Communication of the Angels or whether it be that God himself makes known to them our desires by a particular Revelation or whether it be that he discovers the secret to them in his Divine Essence in which all truth is Comprised If we enquire of your more Ancient Authors we shall find all full of Uncertainty Lombard sent lib. IV. dist 45. Scotus ibid. Qu. 4. Gabr. Biel. in Can. Miss l. 31. Lombard thought it was not incredible to suppose that the Saints might know the prayers that were addressed to them Scotus went a little farther and judged it to be probable that God revealed these things to them And so did Gabriel Biel. Those who pretend to more certainty yet are able to give but very little reason why * Bellarm. de Eccles Triumph l. 1. cap. 20. unless you will take this for a reason that their Church generally belives so and that otherwise it would be vain and absur'd to pray to them In short how the Saints hear your prayers you do not pretend to know and I desire you to give Me but one rational Argument to convince me that by whatever means it is they do ordinarily and constantly and certainly and particularly understand the Addresses that you make to them For to deal freely with you I never yet met with any thing that but inclined me to believe this but much to the contrary 128. Secondly Concerning the Canonization of your Saints may I beg leave to ask you Are you sure that all those whom your Church has placed in Heaven are truly there if you are not I am sure you do very unreasonably to pray to them Now this I the rather desire to be satisfied in because here again I find your Authors very much unresolved what to say Bellarm. l. 1. de Beat. SS e. 8. 9. Vasquez l 1. de Ador. disp V. c. 3. First It is but the common Opinion no matter of Faith that the power of Canonizing Saints belongs to the Pope and therefore it cannot be without all doubt whether those whom he Canonizes are infallibly Saints or no. Secondly The Jesuit Vasquez tells us there are Catholicks He means those of your Communion who do not think it without doubt that all whom your Church has Canonized are indeed Saints Cajetane libr. de Indulg c. 8. Canus loc Theol. lib. 5. c. 5. Gerson de 4. dom cons 2. c. de Exam. doctr cons 1. See Bishop Taylours Polem disc pag. 333. And he mentions no less a man than Cardinal Cajetane for one And that Cardinal in the book to which Vasquez refers alledges the great Doctour of your Schools S. Thomas for another To these I will add Melchior Canus Antoninus and Gerson who at most esteem it but piously credible not absolutely certain But Augustinus Triumphus goes farther and doubts not freely to declare that all who are Canonized by the Pope cannot be in Heaven And Prateolus tells us that Herman the Author of the Heresie of the Fratricelli was for twenty years together after his death honour'd as a Saint and then his body was taken up and burnt for a Heretick And now if you are not yet sensible of the danger you run by this means whilst you not only call upon a damned soul for aid and assistance but as in some of your prayers you do pray unto God so to give you Grace on Earth as he has glorified them in Heaven De SS beat l. 1. c. 9. Sect. secundo I shall leave it to your own Cardinal Bellarmine to inform you of it Thirdly It is confessed by those of your own Church that among your Canonized Saints some there have been whose Lives were not to be commended Others whose Opinions have been condemned as Heretical and for my part when I consider the Character of some to whom you pray such as Thomas a Becket Dominick c. I cannot but say that if these be the men whom you place in Heaven what the poor Indians did of the Spaniards that then the other is certainly the more desirable portion For and I am perswaded that were but S. Martin again alive to summon their Souls before him as he once did that of a supposed Saint in his time Vid Bellar. de beat SS l. 1. cap. 7. they would make the same Confession that wretched Spirit is reported to have done and prove much more worthy your Compassion than your Adoration Now that which the more encreases this danger is Fourthly The almost infinite Number of Saints that have been received amongst you and whose Consecration depending wholly on matter of Fact in which you do not pretend the Pope to be Infallible it can hardly be supposed but that he must have very often proved mistaken For to keep only to your own Order a late Author of yours tells us Calendarium Benedictinum ad 26. Dec. that your Domestick Saints alone did long since by computation amount to fourty four thousand And I find another †Dr. Jackson T. 1. p. 937. list increasing them to fifty thousand Now to consider all the Arts and Intrigues that are used to procure these Canonizations by what Popes many of them have been placed in Heaven what Characters several among them have in your own Histories of their Lives these and many other Reflections would I confess prompt me were I otherwise as well satisfied of the Innocence of this Worship as I am fully convinced of the unlawfulness of it yet to pray to the greatest part of your Saints as he once did to Saint Cutbert Si Sanctus sis Ora pro me IF THOU ART A SAINT pray for me 129. It is I know the last refuge of many who consider this uncertainty to say That at least your good intention shall render these Prayers acceptable to God Vossius Thes Theol. p. 106. for what says the Learned Erasmus if the Saints do not perceive our desires yet Christ do's know them and will for them give us what we ask But yet still this will not make it a reasonable Service nor can you with a firm Faith call upon those in Heaven of whom you have
at most but a Pious Credulity that they are there And tho some of your Authors do believe that your own Piety shall excuse you yet others utterly deny it and doubt not to say that you may as well excuse the Heathens themselves Catherinus Annot. in Cajet dogm de Canoniz pag. 135. who in worshipping the parts of the World supposed according to Varro's Divinity that they Worshipped the Divine Nature that was diffused through it But 130. Thirdly That which is the worst of all is that you have not only no certainty of the Happiness of those Saints whom you Canonize but you pray to some who for ought appears never had any Being in the World. Now among these I shall not doubt in the first place to account our own Country Saint and Champion St. George and of whom our English Legends still recount so many Miracles tho' Cardinal Baronius himself has confess'd that they are for the most part absolutely false Baron in Martyr R. Apr. 23. In the Roman Breviary since the Reformation of it by Pope Pius V. there is no account at all of his Life and your own * Ribadeneira ad 23. April Authors tells us the reason is because there is no certain truth of any of those things that are extant concerning him And indeed if the Antient Histories of this Saint were justly censured by Pope Gelasius as Apocryphal we have no great reason to believe that the latter Legends deserve any better reception As for the famous Story which still continues in those equally Books of the Ignorant The English Lives of the Saints and the Sign Posts where we see this great Champion like another Perseus mounted to deliver the fair Andromeda from the Dragons Mouth Baronius charges Jacobus a Voragine with the pure Invention of it and almost every Body now but our English Compiler is grown asham'd of it In short if there be any Foundation at all in Antiquity for this Story it is but little for the satisfaction of those who Worship this Saint Your own Authors confess that this George lived about the time of Dioclesian that he was by Birth a Cappadocian that he had Encounters with Athanasius a Magician Now all this seems to perswade us that our S. George was no other than George the Arrian Bishop who was also a Cappadocian by Birth who had Encounters with S. Athanasius whom the Arrians called a Magician and who was Deified by those Hereticks after his violent Death in the time of Julian And in Memory of which perhaps it was that they first mounted him upon a Camel being led through the Streets upon one and then for greater decency changed it into a Horse to which Jacobus a Voragine added the Dragon and the Lady with the Warlike Equipage of Cask and Lance And thus is our Tutelary Saint brought under suspition of being if any thing at all a wicked Heretick that persecuted one of the greatest Bishops of his time for asserting the Divinity of the Son of God and yet is this Man still pray'd to in your Church and I have now by me an Antient Ritual in which he is seen Armed at all points his Spear in the Dragons Mouth the Lady by him on her Knees and these Prayers addressed to him Saint GEORGE famous Martyr Praise and Glory become thee By whom the princely Lady being grieved by a wicked Dragon was preserved Almighty and Everlasting God who mercifully hearest the prayers of those who call upon thee we humbly beseech thy Majesty that as for the honour of thy Blessed and Glorious Martyr S. George thou causedst the Dragon to be overcome by a Maid so by his Intercession thou wouldest vouchsafe to defend us against all our Enemies visible and invisible that they may not be able to hurt us through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now what is this but to mock God in his solemn service To pray to him through the Intercession of a man that either never lived in the World or it may be was one of his most hated Enemies and deified by a crew of wretched Hereticks for his fury in opposing the Eternal Generation of the Saviour of us all 131. And what I have thus chosen more particularly to insist upon in this Example I might shew in several others not a whit less fabulous Our Saviour in S. Luke gives a parabolical account of the different States of men in the other World under the names of Dives and Lazarus As for the former there was no great danger of making him a Saint But for Lazarus he is transubstantiated into a real man. Temples are built among you to his Honour Baron Ann. ad Ann. 3. §. 44. Anniversary solemnites are Consecrated to his memory and because he was represented in Scripture as full of sores he is now made the Patron of the Lepers in Heaven From the Greek word signifying a Spear you have first found out a name for the Centurion that ran our Blessed Lord into the Side and having metamorphosed the Spear into a Man it was no hard matter to make the Man a Saint Baron Not. in Mart. XV. March. And now upon the 15th of March who so much Honour'd as S. Longinus Nay what is yet more pleasant Baronius assures us that his Venerable Body is kept in the Church of St. Austin at Rome 132. S. Christopher is another of your Saints that never lived He is pretended to have suffer'd under Dagnus King of Lycia who also never was in the World and being of a Giantly stature to have dwelt by a River side where there was no Bridge and there he made it his business in Charity to carry over all that pass'd that way Which our Saviour so much approved as to suffer him once upon a time to carry himself over upon his shoulders Not. ad Martyrol Jul. 25. Now all this Cardinal Baronius confesses to be a meer Legend but our thorough paced English-Irish-Collector tho he confesses he never saw any approved Author that said it yet for the Pictures sake which are so common amongst you declares generously that he was resolved to believe it And the ancient Ritual I before mention'd prays to our Saviour that in consideration of his riding over the River upon S. Christophers back he would deliver you from all dangers 133. I should never have done should I insist on this manner upon all the other Imaginary Saints whom you Worship Such were our own Country-woman again S. Ursula and her 11000 Virgins who is pretended to have been Daughter to Dionet King of Cornwall in the time of Marcian when there was no such King in England and to have been Martyr'd at Cologn whither she went by Ship being the first and last that ever sail'd thither and yet this Lady makes no mean Figure in your Church She is Patroness under God and the Blessed Virgin of a whole Religious Society and with great Devotion pray'd to December 21. I might to
this Visionary Saintess add others of the same Sex S. Catharine S. Margaret c. But I shall content my self with one Memorable Instance not so commonly known which may suffice to shew with what uncertainty you pray to many in these Devotions The account is given by one of your own Communion and who himself discover'd the mistake 134. About eight Miles from Evora a City of Portugal Ressendii Epist ad Barthol Kebedium pag. 168. there is a place which they call the Cave of the Martyrs where they pretend were slain a great number of Christians with their Bishop and his two Sisters to one of which called Columba there was a Chappel erected and in the place where the other was slain there issued out a Spring of sweet Water called to this day Holy-well and very good for curing a weak sight The Sepulchre of the Bishop himself is in a Church of the Blessed Virgins empty and open Over it is a Table of Stone supported by four Pillars so that a Man might go under it Hither came all those that had Pains in their Loyns and imploring the aid of this Martyr they went away certainly Cured There was also the Picture of this Bishop and upon this Stone Table they Sacrificed the Mass in Honour to him calling him by his proper Name VIARIUS 135. This was the ancient Tradition and Worship When Ressendius who relates this Story came hither in order to the publishing the Life of this Saint among others he was then Writing he desired the Priest who had given him this account of their Martyr to shew him if there were any antient Records or Inscriptions that confirm'd it Upon this he brought him to the Altar before mention'd and there he found this Inscription S. Q. JVL. CLARO C. V. IIII. VIRO VIARVM CVRANDARVM ANN. XXI Q. JV L. NEPOTIANO C. I. III. VIRO VIARVM CVRANDARVM ANN. XX. CALP SABINA FILIIS The Priest pointing with his Finger to these Words VIARUM CVRANDARUM See says he the proper Name of the Martyr VIARIUS And for CURANDARUM it is as much as to say Cura Cutarum i. e. a Bishop As for the other Names continued he I suppose they may be the proper Names of the other Martyrs that suffered with him 136. Ressendius held his Countenance as well as ever he could but went immediately away to Cardinal Alphonsus who was at that time Bishop of Evora and told him all that had pass'd and how a couple of Heathens Overseers of the High-ways had been Worshipp'd there for Christians and Martyrs The Cardinal commanded the Tomb to be stopped up to the great discontent of the people who had been wont to receive mighty relief by their Addresses to this Viarius and cursed the Learning and Curiosity of Ressendius that had deprived them of so great and useful a Saint Cassander Consult p. 971. 137. I shall make no other Application of this Story than what I find in the complaint of another Learned man of your Church as to this very matter There is also says he another Error not uncommon that neglecting in a manner the antient and known Saints the common People Worship more ardently and diligently the new and unknown of whose Holiness we have but little assurance and some of which are known to us only by Revelation insomuch that of several of them it is justly doubted Whether EVER THERE WERE ANY SUCH PERSONS IN THE WORLD 138. From all these Considerations I now conclude against the reasonableness of this Invocation 1. No Man can reasonably pray in Faith to such Persons as he can never be sure are able either to hear his Prayers or to answer his desires But you can never be sure that your Saints are able to do either of these and therefore you cannot reasonably pray with any good assurance to them 2. It is unreasonable to pray to those as Saints who it may be are not in Heaven nor ever shall be there But this is very probably the Case of many of your Saints and you cannot be sure it is otherwise when you address to them and therefore it is unreasonable in you to pray to them 3. To pray to those who never were in the World is the most unreasonable thing that can be imagined but in your Prayers to many of your Saints you address to those that never were in the World and therefore upon this and upon all the foregoing Accounts I conclude it very unreasonable to pray to the Saints at all There is yet one thing more remaining to finish this whole Subject of Invocation of Saints viz. IV. That it is Unprofitable and Impious in the Practice First That it is Unprofitable 139. And if the former consideration stand good this will necessarily follow from it For if either those whom you pray to are meer figments of your own brain that have neither Truth nor Existence or if tho they do Exist yet they are not Saints as you suppose or tho they should be Saints too yet have no means ordinarily and particularly to hear your prayers nor can attend to those numberless addresses that are at the same time from all the parts of the World put up to them it must then be a most unprofitable as well as a most senseless practise to pray to them and what our Saviour once objected to the Samaritans will be found no less true of you that ye worship ye know not what nor why 140. But let us allow that you invoke none but what have lived and are sanctified Let us also grant that which yet the Holy Fathers so much doubted of that the Saints do already enjoy the Beatifick Vision and therefore according to your Divinity are capable of understanding your prayers by whatsoever way it be that they do so I dare yet ask of you what profit is there in this service For tell me now I beseech you O ye Worshippers of deed men 1 John II. 1. Have we not an Advocate in Heaven Jesus Christ the righteous who is the sole and full propitiation of our sins Jo. XIV 13. Ib. VI. 6. Has he not promised that whatsoever we ask the Father in HIS NAME we shall receive it Has he not told us that he is the Way the Truth and the Life And that no one can come to the Father but by him Is it not he that has set us an Example how we ought to pray when ye pray say Our Father which art in Heaven Shew us if you can any precept or encouragement or Example for going to any other Is it that our Saviour Christ has not compassion enough for us that you go to others as more merciful Thus some of you I know have said But on the contrary the Scripture tells us ' That we have not a High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our Infirmities Heb. IV. 15 16. but was in all points tempted like as we are And from thence presently infers '
Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need Or is it finally that the interest of the Blessed Jesus is not great enough with his Father unless you add a mad Francis a bloody Dominick a Rebellious Becket an enthusiastick Ignatius to be joynt Advocates with him If these indeed be your thoughts let us plainly know the impiety of them And upon what unchristian foundations the benefit of this practise is established by you But if you dare not say that any Saint in Heaven can prevail where Christ alone cannot if you are ashamed to own that you think any one can love us more dearly than he who gave himself for us and redeem'd us with his own most precious Blood or by consequence can be more ready to hear and intercede for us Tell me then what profit is it that having this fountain of living water you run to the broken Cisterns of the merits and intercession of your fellow Creatures which can hold no Water 141. But I will go yet further to shew you the unprofitableness of this service It was objected by a great Man of your own Church Durand in sent IV. d. 45. q. 4. If says he the Saints know our necessities and those defects which we express in our Prayers How comes it to pass that we do not oftner find our selves relieved by them To this he answers ' That altho the Saints in Heaven have doubtless the greatest Charity imaginable for us yet they have withal their Wills so intirely conformed to the Will of God as not to lend any assistance to us but according to what they see the Knowledge and Will of God disposed towards us An excellent reflexion certainly and which no one can doubt to be most true But then it will follow from it that you do in vain sollicite the Saints who cannot lend you any assistance till God is pleased to permit himself to be intreated for you Whilst our Heavenly Father is our Enemy all the Host of Heaven are so too We must first be reconciled to him before ever we can expect any favour or acceptance with them In short it was the Conclusion of an antient Father whom I before mentioned That the only way to make the Angels and Saints our Friends is to make God so first And tho' we know little of what those blessed Spirits above do for us yet we have all the reason in the World to believe that they Love and Hate according to the Divine Pleasure and if they do pray for us the most ready way to obtain their Prayers is to be constant and zealous and persevering both in our Prayers and Piety towards God through his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. 142. I shall conclude this with the words of S. Austin De verâ Religione p. 290. Lugd. 1664. Let it not be any matter of Religion to us to Worship dead Men because if they have lived well they desire no such Honour but rather that we should Worship him by whose Illumination they rejoyce that we are Companions of their Piety They are therefore to be Honoured for our Imitation not to be Worshipped out of Religion And the same let us think of Angels that they above all things desire that we should together with them Worship God only in whose Vision they are happy Tying our Souls to him alone from which Religion derives its very Name let us lay aside all Superstition Behold I Worship one God the One principle of all things Whatsoever Angel loves this God I am sure that he loves me too Whosoever remains in him and can understand the Prayers of Men in him he hears me Whosoever has God for his Good do's in him help me Let the Adorers of the parts of the Universe tell me What good person is there that he does not reconcile to himself who Worships him only whom every good person loves and in whose knowledge he rejoyces and by recurring to which principle he becomes good Let therefore Religion bind us to the One God Almighty c. But I insist too long on these Reflections I add only Secondly To close all That this Invocation of Saints departed is as Impious as it is Unprofitable 143. For First To take this Practice in the most Moderate Sense that may be yet to pray to any Creature after the manner that you do to the Saints departed is to make them the Objects of a proper Religious Worship and to pay that Service to the Creature which is due only to the Creator and this certainly cannot be done without a very great Impiety 144. Secondly To pray to the Saints but only as Intercessors even this do's usurp upon the peculiar Prerogative of our Blessed Saviour who is our only Mediator and whose singular Priviledge it is to appear in the presence of God for us And to joyn others with Christ in his great Office and Employment to make to our selves new Mediators what is this but tacitely at least to imply that we dare not trust either his Mercy or his Interest in the concern of our Everlasting Salvation But then 145. Thirdly To pray as you evidently do not only that the Saints would intercede for you but that God would be merciful to you not only through the Merits of Christ but of the Saint whose Memory you celebrate this is a downright undervaluing of our Saviour's Bloud and do's despight unto the Covenant of Grace 146. Fourthly To pray to the Saints as if we may be allow'd to understand the meaning of plain words you do as the Arbitrary Dispensers of Benefits to you that they would themselves grant you those things which you ask of them this makes your Service yet more intollerable And tho' you seek to evade the justice of this Censure by those unreasonable Expositions of your prayers I have before refuted yet I am sure it ought to be more than enough to make us avoid that practice which cannot be excused but by such forced Interpretations as should men use the like on other Occasions all Society must be overthrown and Mens Words be no longer relied upon as sufficient to declare the Sense of their Minds 147. Fifthly As to what concerns the practice of the people in this point it cannot be deny'd nay it is by some of your own Church openly complain'd of how much their hope and confidence their Love and Service are hereby lessen'd towards God and what greater signs of Zeal appear in them towards the Blessed Virgin than towards our Saviour Christ himself And indeed you who ought to have better inform'd them are the very Persons that have especially help'd to mislead them 'T is from you they have learnt as a great practice of piety to salute her ten times for God's once 'T is you that have taught them to joyn Mary still with Jesus in their Mouths Insomuch as if it be possible to let her
most celebrated Madonna 's are the Pictures of the Painters Whores set up in their Churches as Objects of the Peoples Veneration But this and other Excesses of the like kind I purposely forbear lest I should be thought to please my self in your Impieties which I heartily lament and earnestly be-beseech God to reform in you Nor should I have said thus much but only to shew how little Reason you had to enter on this new and most Impertinent Subject of the Benefit of Images and that were our Cause to be try'd by this alone we might even so expect to carry it against you And this to your first Pretence 15. The next thing you offer in favour of your Images is Reply § 20. That there is no now danger of Idolatry in this Practice seeing all Persons are taught that there is but one God to whom Adoration is only due and therefore that they cannot be capable of erring so grosly as to give Divine Honour to an Image or to think any Virtue annexed to them for which they ought to be adored In short it is you say by the subtilty of the Devil who hates any thing that excites Devotion that these helps to Piety are now branded with the horrid Note of Idolatry and Catholics represented as if they paid the Act of Adoration to the Images themselves 16. Answ That the Devil is an Enemy to Piety and to all those things that may any way serve to promote it I can easily believe but that it is He who upon this account stirs up us to oppose your Idolatry I shall hardly Credit tho you should give me as good an assurance of it as ever your Brother the old Monk did the second Council of Nice when he told them that the Devil himself had confess'd to him how much he hated your Holy and Venerable Images De Idololatria I am sure Tertullian was so far from this that he thought 't was the Devil that instigated Men to bring them into the World and not to help to cast them out But to overthrow at once both your Reflection and Argument together I do here roundly affirm That what you say is so far from being true That there is now no danger of Idolatry in the Worship of Images that on the contrary I will shew that in the Worship of them publickly authorized and practiced amongst you you do actually commit it And then every Body will see what Spirit it is that Acts us in opposition to this Service and who it is that blinds you so far as to make you contend for that which both the Holy Scripture condemns and the Primitive Christians neither knew nor would have endured And this brings me to my first Proposal wherein I am SECT II. To make good the Charge of Image-Worship against you and Answer those Evasions by which you endavour to clear your selves of it 17. NOW that you give Religious Worship to Images has been so fully proved in that Learned Book I have before refer'd you to in Answer to T. G. both from the Definitions of your Councils of Nice and Trent and from the unanimous Voice of almost all the great Men of your Church who have written any thing of this matter that I shall need say but very little here in Confirmation of it And therefore not to mustiply Quotations by transcribing what has been already collected as to this matter I shall content my self with this plain and I think unexceptionable manner of proceeding against you 1st I will propose to you the Voice of your Church in her Definitions 2dly I will give you the Interpretation of her Sense in these Definitions from Card. Capisucchi only and out of that Book to which Mons de Meaux himself appeals 3dly I will from both vindicate the Account I have given of the Practice of your Church in Conformity to these Principles 18. 1st For what concerns the first of these the Voice of your Church as to this Point the Council of Trent declares That the Images of Christ of the Blessed Virgin and of the Saints are more especially to be had and retained in Temples and that due Honour and Veneration is to be paid to them Not that it should be believed that there is any Divinity or Virtue in them for which they are to be Worshipped or that any thing is to be Asked of them or that any Trust is to be put in Images but because the Honour which is given to them is referr'd to the Proto-types which they Represent so that by the Images which you Kiss and before which you uncover your Heads and fall down you Adore Christ and Worship the Saints which they Represent 19. Thus that wary Synod Neither determining what Honour should be given to Images nor yet setting any bounds to any But then as it expresly allows them the external Marks of Divine Worship so by fixing the Grounds of this Honour to be the passing of it to the Proto-type not only Soto Turrian and Naclantus three great Divines concern'd in that Synod but also the Generality of those who have treated since of this matter have concluded that the same Adoration is to be paid to the Image and the Proto-type So that if Christ himself be worshipp'd with Divine Worship then must the Crucifix also be worshipp'd with the very same But this will better appear 19. 2dly From the Account I am to give of the Doctrine of your Church as to this Worship from Cardinal Capisucchi And to whose Book since Mons de Meaux has thought fit to Appeal I am content to submit the Decision of this Controversy to his Sentence and shall leave the World to judg whether I have M srepresented or whether the Bishop and You have not departed from the Doctrine of the Council of Trent 20. Now that we may know precisely what in his Opinion that due Honour and Veneration is which you pay to Images and which the Council so cautiously declined the telling us we will consider first of all what was thought to be so by them whose Opinions he rejects as not fully delivering your Churches Sense Such were Card. Capis Controv. p. 624 625. 21. First of all Durandus Who thought that properly speaking the Images are not to be Adored but because they resemble things worthy Adoration which by remembrance are Adored in Presence of the Images therefore the Images themselves improperly are and may be said to be Adored Now this he Rejects because says he in truth Ibid. 625. it takes away the Worship of Images and concludes it with another of your great Men Raphael de Tuire to be Dangerous Rash and savouring of Haeresy or as Ferdinandus Velosillus phrases it False Rash and Erroneous but especially since the Definition of the Council of Trent Card. Capis Ibid. par ii p. 625. 22. The next whose Opinion he Rejects is Vasquez Who taught that the Images themselves were no otherwise to be Adored
the other probably much later But now the use of Incense in the Greek Church especially was of a much earlier date The Apostolical Canons speak expresly of it And if that Oration of Hyppolitus about the End of the World be truly his as from St. Jerome's mentioning of it in his Catalogue it seems to be we have then two considerable instances to assure us that it was in use in the Greek Church even in the Third Century You see how far I am from detracting any thing from the force of your Argument But yet now after all without fear of censuring Primitive Antiquity in this matter whose Innocence I as freely acknowledg as I heartily honour its piety I shall not doubt to say that the present usage of it in your Church is so far from being innocent that it is in truth Superstitious and Idolatrous 52. First it is Superstitious For indeed what else can we make of your praying to God Pontifical Rom de Benedict Nov. Cruc as in this very Ceremony of Consecrating a Cross you do that He would Bless ✚ and Sanctifie ✚ this Creature of Incense that all weaknesses and infirmities and all the snares of the Enemy perceiving its smell may flie and be separated from his Creatures that they may never be hurt by the biting of the Old Serpent who have been redeemed with the precious blood of his Son. 53. Now if you make this prayer in faith that it is pleasing to God and have a confidence that it shall be accepted by him you must then shew us some grounds some security in the Word of God for it But if you cannot do this what is it but Superstition that is a vain and fond service to intreat the favour of God in the usage of a thing to which he has neither annexed any promise nor for the doing whereof has he any where given us the least encouragement But 54. Secondly The Vse you make of this Incense is yet worse than the Consecration of it You offer it up to Creatures nay to the very Images which you worship and in doing of which I do not see how you will excuse your selves of being guilty of Idolatry That the burning of Incense was part of that Religious Worship under the Law which God was pleased to appropriate to Himself only is not to be denied It was indeed a more peculiar act of Divine Worship than that of bloody Sacrifices themselves And therefore both the Altar on which it was offer'd was covered with Gold and it stood in a more Holy place than that of the Burnt-offerings and is in a more singular manner said to be ' Most Holy unto the LORD Exod. XX 8 10. 2 King. XVIII 4. Bellarm. de SS Beatit l. 1. p. 2026. c. 13. D. Vasquez in 3. Vol. 1. q. 25. Disp 104. Art. 3. c. 5. p. 735. Exod. XX. 8 10. Hence it was that King Hezekiah immediately brake to pieces the Brazen Serpent as soon as he consider'd that the children of Israel burnt Incense before it And yet if we enquire into the use that is made of it in your Church we shall find it offer'd not only to the Saints but even to their very Images and Reliques Vasquez ingenuously confesses that the Israelites gave no other Worship to the Brazen Serpent than what you give to your Images at this day and that Hezekias therefore commanded it to be broken in pieces not that he thought the people adored it as a God but because he saw such a Divine Worship paid to it It is one of the chief things remarked by your own Writers in the Life of a great Saint of your Order St. Gerard Bishop of Chanade in Hungary Vie des Sts. Calend. Ben. ad Sept. 24. whom you Commemorate Septemb. 24. That he caused a Church to be built in Chanade His Episcopal See and in it dedicated a Chappel to the Honour of the Blessed Virgn where having set up her Statue He every day offer'd Incense to the Figure and took care by an Ordinance which He made that Her Altar should never be without fine Odours upon it which should continually smoke to Her Honour 55. Now this being the undoubted Practice of your Church and such as you cannot deny to be contrary to the express Command of God under the Law Bellarm. de Imag. SS l. 2. ◠17. p. 2144. insomuch that Cardinal Bellarmine freely confesses it would have been Criminal in a Jew to have offer'd Incense to any besides God only either you must evidently prove to us That those Acts which were then appropriate Acts of Divine Worship are not so now but remain indifferent to be paid to the Creature as well as the Creator or you must give us leave to conclude that you do in this attribute that Honour to an Image which God has reserved as peculiar to Himself and are by so doing guilty of Idolatry 56. And thus have I dispatch'd the two Things you called me without any Provocation of mine to examine and which it may be you will now begin to think you might as well have let alone I return to my Defence in which I am next to consider what you have to except against my third Argument which I brought to shew that you do truly and properly Adore the Cross and that was from your Good-Friday Service Reply To this you Answer Reply p. 35. That you had here also shown my UNSINCERE TRICKS in adding and diminishing Words to make your Church speak as I would have it And you pronounce me once more a CALUMNIATOR for saying that this proves that your Church do's Adore the Cross in the utmost propriety of the Phrase 57. Answ These are hard Words but I have always observed that men are most uneasy when Truth touches them to the quick If you are not yet sensible that it was indeed a pitiful Cavil to pretend I had false translated your Service by what I have offer'd in my former part from Mons Imbert's Case and who for opposing that Interpretation of those Words which I deliver'd was used after the manner that I have declared I am confident you are the only Person even of your own Church that needs to be convinced of it In all the French Translations of your Missal I have ever seen it is render'd in the very words that I gave it Behold the Wood of the Cross come let us Adore I T And particularly in that of Mons Voisin approved by those of your Church even to excess you will find it in these express terms Voila le Bois de la Croix R. venez Adorons L E. 58. In the Missal of Salisbury the Determination of that Address to the Cross is undeniably evident The Priests uncover the Cross and sing the whole Antiphone Behold the Wood of the Cross come let us Adore to which the Quire kneeling down answer We adore thy CROSS O Lord. And I cannot but observe that when Jo. Aegidius Canon
mind you of what I perceive you have nothing to say to viz. That Aquinas and his Followers who have been sometimes reckon'd men of Literature in your Church have understood this Hymn according to the plain and literal meaning of it and that so confidently as to conclude from it that your Church holds Divine Honour to be due to the Cross We ought to worship the Images themselves says Soto for the Church doth not say We worship THEE O Christ Soto de Just Jure l. 2. q. 3. Art. 2. Cathar de Cult Ador. Imag. p. 133. But We adore thy CROSS O Christ And again O CRVX AVE c. We direct our Words and signs of Adoration to the Images says Catherine to which likewise we burn Incense as when we say to the CROSS O Crux Ave. And to the same purpose Marsilius ab Ingen Ludovicus de Paramo Philippus Gamachaeus c. See Dr. St. Answer to T. G. Part 2. 72. But if all this will not yet satisfy you but you are still resolved to adhere to your new Figure I will then give you another Instance and which I believe may be Prose for I do not remember I ever saw it in the Corpus Poetarum though this I shall leave to your Literature to determine And I pray be pleased to send us the Paraphrase of this Antiphone according to your New Method of Expounding O CROSS brighter than all the Stars famous in the World Breviar Rom. May 3. p. 797. Paris 1643. exceeding amiable to Men more holy than all things which alone hast been thought worthy to bear the weight of the World. Sweet Wood bearing the sweet Nails and sweet burdens SAVE the present Company gathered together this day to THY PRAISE And this may serve for the Second Point which was To make good the Charge I had brought against you of giving Divine Worship to Images I proceed now finally to shew SECT III. That the Church of Rome thus Worshipping of Images is truly and properly guilty of Idolatry 73. THERE is nothing in all our Disputes with those of the Church of Rome that seems so much to offend them as this Charge They think it not only unreasonable to suppose that men in the clear light of Christianity should be capable of falling into Idolatry but even destructive of the very nature of a Church and by consequence contrary to all those Promises of Christ in his Gospel ' That the Gates of Hell should never prevail against it And indeed were our Notion of Idolatry the same with what some of their late Advocates have set forth as the true and only Notion of it Reasons for Abrogating the Test p. 80 81. I should not at all wonder at their resentments but rather confess that we had justly deserved all those Reproaches which their intemperate Pens have of late bestow'd upon us 74. But whatever their opinion of the true and only Notion of Idolatry be yet common equity should have taught them to confess that we mean no more in our charge of it against them than this That those of the Church of Rome in their worship of the Host of Saints and Images do give that Honour to the Creature which ought to be given only to God. We do not pretend that you have either renounced the Worship of the Supreme Deity or that you do adore either the Sun Moon and Stars or even Angels and Saints as such And therefore howsoever you may dislike our Notion of Idolatry yet you ought not to revile us for fixing a false Charge against you but to shew that we give an ill Name to a true Charge And because I now desire not to be mis-understood I do first of all declare that by my present Conclusion I intend no more than this That you do give the proper Acts of Divine Worship to Images as I have already shew'd you do to Saints and that this is truly and properly Idolatry 75. To discharge therefore this last part of my Undertaking as I ought to do I will proceed distinctly upon these two things Ist To fix our Notion of Idolatry against those New Idea's that have of late been given of it IIdly To shew that according to the true Notion of it the Church of Rome in her Worship of Images is guilty of Idolatry I. POINT I. Of the true Nature of Idolatry 76. This is what you desire me to reflect upon Reply p. 29. and I hope it will not be thought amiss if I here with all imaginable tenderness communicate my Reflections to you Reply p. 28. Three things you say there are required to make that Honour which we do pay to any thing become Idolatrous 1st The Understanding must acknowledge an Excellency in the Object truly Divine and worthy of Adoration in the strictest sense where really there is no such Excellency 2dly The Will must have a propension and inclination to it as such and pay that Honour to it And Lastly the Body must pay the exterior Obeysance of bowing kneeling prostrating kissing c. in pursuance of this interior Love and Knowledge 77. Ans That is to say that no One is an Idolater but what takes somewhat to be God that indeed is not so and upon that account gives the Worship due to the Supreme God to a Created Being And this explains what you had said before Reply p. 27. that you wonder how it could enter into the Minds of Men of common sense to conceive it possible that in the clear light of Christianity where all Persons are taught there is but One God to whom Adoration is only due they should yet fall down and Adore a Stock or a Stone and pay divine Honour to it That the Idolatry of the ancient Jews and Heathens consisted in believing a plurality of Gods and adoring them as such Ibid. p. 28. So that in short let men but keep to the Knowledge of the One true God and not worship Saints or Images as such and then there is no danger of Idolatry for any Other Worship that may be paid to them 78. Reasons for Abrogating the Test p. 71 c. And now let Idolatry be as stabbing and cut-throat a word as it will Be its punishment if it were possible greater than what a Reverend Author has lately told us is its least Death and Damnation If this be the only Idolatry viz. to worship somewhat else besides God as supposing it to be very God I dare confidently affirm in behalf of all those Popular Divines that have ever used that scolding word That the Church of Rome is not Idolatrous in the worship of Saints or Images nor has it in this sense ever been charged by us as such But to shew the Vanity of this Pretence and yet more clearly express what we mean by this Charge I will now very plainly examine these two things I. Whether according to the Scripture-Notion of Idolatry those may not be guilty
the Lord and had the Kingdom by Gods own immediate Promise setled upon his Posterity for his so doing 2 King. X. 29. And yet it is expresly said of him Howbeit from the Sins of Jeroboam who made Israel to Sin Jehu departed not from after them viz. the Golden Calves that were in Bethel and that were in Dan. 89. Who was it but the true God for whom Elijah appear'd so zealous 1 King. XVIII when he enter'd into that famous trial with the Prophets of Baal If the Lord be God follow him but if Baal than follow him And the Fire came down from Heaven and burnt up the Sacrifice and all the people confest saying Ibid. 39. ' The Lord he is the God The Lord he is the God. 90. Hence it is that when Ahab fell into that other kind of Idolatry which consists in worshipping of false Gods he is represented as much more heinously offending God than the other Kings of Israel who worshipp'd the Calves of Dan and Bethel 1 King. XVI 31. 1 Kings XVI 31. And it came to pass as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the Son of Nebat that he went and served Baal and worshipped him 91. By all which it undoubtedly appears that in both these cases they design'd by those Calves to worship the true God and then seeing it is confest they did commit Idolatry in that service it must remain that men may know and serve the true God and yet by worshipping him in this prohibited manner may in the interpretation of the Divine Law commit Idolatry 92. I shall conclude this with that Confession which the Evidence of truth in this matter has extorted from Cardinal Bellarmin and and some others of your own Communion where answering this objection that when the Golden Calf was set up Aaron proclaimed a Feast not to any other strange God but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the LORD to the Jehovah Bellarm. lib. 2. de Imag c. 13. p. 2 130 2131. It is says he the solution of Abulensis and others that there were two sorts of Idols among the Hebrews One without the name of any certain God as that of Micha Judges XVII and perhaps the Golden Calf which Aaron made Exod. XXXII and Jeroboam renew'd 1 King. XII for the Scripture does not call the Calf the God Moloch or the God Baal but always says ' These are thy GODS O Israel The other sort of Idols had a certain name as Baal Moloch Ashtoreth Chamos c. as is plain 1 King. XI c. They say therefore and that not improbably that it may be admitted of the former kind That the Jews did think that in the Idol THEY WORSHIPPED THE TRVE GOD. 93. And now tho this might suffice to shew how consistent the guilt of Idolatry is with the acknowledgment of one true God yet will I add a reflection or two more for the farther confirmation of it For First Were such a Notion as this of Idolatry to be admitted it would serve no less to excuse the Heathens than those of the Church of Rome of the guilt of it For however they worshipp'd other inferior Deities as these do Saints and Angels with a lower degree of Religions Honour yet even they too acknowledged one supreme God who was over all and to whom the highest Worship and Adoration alone was due Defence of the Disc of Idolatry par 1 This has been so largely proved by T. G's worthy and learned Antagonist not to mention any others who have occasionally treated of this Argument that I shall not need to enter on any particular induction in order to the asserting of it 94. Secondly It cannot be question'd but that this new Notion of Idolatry set up on purpose to excuse you from that Imputation is utterly repugnant to the Principles of the Ancient Fathers who certainly charged those with Idolatry who yet believed and worshipp'd the very same God with themselves Thus St. Athanasius charges the Arrians with Idolatry for adoring Christ Athanas contr Arrian Orat. 1. p. 286. whom they esteem'd to be a Creature He tells them that no supposition of any Excellencies whatever in him altho derived from God would excuse them But that if they thought him a meer man and yet adored him they would be found worshippers of men for all that Ib. 387. Nay he doubts not to parallel them with the Gentiles and to compare the service they paid to our Saviour upon this supposition with that which the other gave to their inferior Deities And the same was the opinion of all the rest of those great men Gregory Nazianzen Nyssen Epiphanius c. and whose words are so well known that I shall not need to transcribe them 95. But now that I have mentioned Epiphanius I may not forget another sort of Idolatry exploded by him and yet more near our purpose than the foregoing I mean that Worship which some Superstitious Women in his time paid to the Blessed Virgin by offering a Cake to her Now this that Holy Father condemns as downright Idolatry and the device of the Devil And to shew how consistent the charge of Idolatry is with the worship of one God he gives us a similitude that would almost imply a necessity of acknowledging the one true God to compleat the nature of it Idolatry says he comes into the world through an Adulterous inclination of the mind which cannot be contented with one God alone Like an Adulterous Woman that is not satisfied with the chast embraces of one Husband but wanders in her lust after many lovers So possible did those Ancient Fathers think it to be for Men in the clear light of Christianity and retaining the acknowledgment of the true God nevertheless to commit Idolatry 96. I might add here the Exhortations of the New Testament where both S. Paul and S. John among other Cautions to the Christians of their Times place that of fleeing from Idolatry and this in such a manner as evidently supposes them very capable of continuing the Profession of Christianity and the Knowledg and Worship of God and yet of falling into it But I shall content my self lastly to close up this with the Confessions of Learned Romanists themselves who have acknowledged Idolatry to be consistent with the Worship of the true God. 97. S. Thomas defines Idolatry to be a Sin 22dae q. 94. Ar. 3. resp ad 2. Cajet pag. 340 whereby the singularity of God's Dominion is taken from him And Card Cajetane in his Notes upon this same Question supposes that a Christian may commit Idolatry and yet be so far from renouncing the true God as not to violate any part of his Faith in him Gregory de Valentia says 't is Idolatry Lib. 1. de Idol Whensoever a Man intends to apply to a Creature either by Words or by Actions any estimation which is proper unto the Majesty of God whether it
appears that you are in this matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or self-condemned If you believe this Worship to be lawful and yet deny it of Hypocrisy towards us if you think it to be Idolatrous and yet comply with it of a great Sin towards God. 115. And that which yet farther confirms me in this is to consider what wretched Evasions you make use of to excuse your selves in these Particulars Can any thing be more pitiful than the Expositions you have here offer'd of your Consecrating of Crosses of your Good-friday-Service and of the Hymns of your Church which I had alledged as Instances of that Worship you give to Images Do not these plainly shew a desperate Cause and that you are but too sensible that your old Practices are not to be reconciled with your new Pretences 116. If while I am endeavouring to convince you of Idolatry I do by the way discover your Insincerity 't is what I cannot help But all the use I shall make at present of these Remarks shall be to observe that even those among you who pretend the most to deny a Divine Worship to Images yet must allow such Acts of it as these I have here recounted Now that even this will involve you in this Guilt is evident from the Scripture-Notion of Idolatry before establish'd For I desire you to tell me if you can what did those Israelites do when they worshipped the Golden Calf that you do not at this day practise in the very same manner Was it 1. that they worshipped God by an Image But if this be Idolatry you cannot deny but that you do the very same Or was it 2. that they did not refer their Worship finally to God but terminated their Adoration upon the very Image it self Nay but Aaron in express terms proclaim'd a Feast unto the Lord and to whom can we suppose that they offer'd their Burnt-offerings and their Peace-offerings but to the same LORD to whom the Feast it self was proclaim'd 117. To conclude There is nothing in that whole History to make us doubt but that they design'd that Calf only as a Symbol of the God of Israel And their Idolatry by Consequence was no other than what the most moderate Men of your Church must confess themselves to be guilty of viz. That contrary to God s express Command you set up Graven Images as Representations of our Saviour Christ and the Holy Trinity and worship the infinite and incomprehensible God in a Figure made like unto a Mortal Man Which God himself has warranted us by his holy Word to call Idolatry 118. It remains therefore upon the whole that either you must shew us to be mistaken in our Notion of Idolatry or you will never be able to acquit your selves of the Charge of it And when you have done this we shall then only tell you that you commit a Sin in this Service that you violate God's holy Law which forbids it but for the denomination of it we shall leave it to you whose Sin it is to give it what particular Name you your selves think fit Of RELIQUES 119. IN the Point of Reliques you offer only two things in answer to all that I had said upon that Subject Repl◠p. 42. c. viz. Reply First That the whole of my Discourse proceeded upon verbal Dispute what we are to call that Honour which you give to them and which you deny to be properly Worship Secondly You once more egregiously cavil about the Translation of that Part of the Council of Trent which concerns this Subject and deny that you seek to the sacred Monuments or Reliques of the Saints for the obtaining of THEIR Help and Assistance 120. Answ For answer to which Pretences because I as little love to prolong Disputes at any time Reply ibid. as you do when you have no more to say in order to the carrying of them on I will lay aside words and bring the Issue to the things themselves and shew how miserably you have prevaricated in this Point too as wellas in the foregoing by proving I. That you do properly worship the Reliques of your Saints II. That you do seek to them for Help and Assistance And when this is done I shall not need say any thing to prove that you here also commit Idolatry seeing you allow the Cases of Images and Reliques to be the same Reply p. 44. and the Council of Trent makes this to be the very difference between the Heathens and them and that by which they hope to escape the Censure of Idolatry viz. That they do not believe any Divinity or Virtue in Images for which they ought to be worshipped or that any thing is to be asked of them or any trust to be put in them Tho how truly they declare this the account I have before given of your consecrating both of Crosses and Agnus Dei's will sufficiently show I. That you do truly and properly worship the Reliques of your Saints 121. This is a Point that in any other Age or Country but ours would have needed no Proof And it is not the least Argument of an innovating Spirit in you that no Words or Expressions are of any value with you as often as you are minded to give us what you call the Churches Sense Let your Writers use never so many Phrases to assure to us their Opinion that Reliques are to be worshipp'd all this signifies nothing they meant no more by it than an Honour or Veneration due to the sacred Remains of those Saints who were once the Temples of the Living God Reply p. 42. and not a Worship or Adoration taken in its strict Sense There is hardly an Expression that can signifie a proper Worship which your own Authors have not made use of to declare the Service they thought due to them I ADORE WORSHIP embrace the Reliques of the Saints said one in the second Council of Nice and the whole Assembly resolved Act. IV. That their Bones Ashes Raggs Blood and Sepulchres should be ADORED only Men should not offer Sacrifice unto them Card. Baronius speaks of it as an Honour done Him by Pope Clement VIIIth Annal. ad Ann. 821. §. 14. that tho most unworthy of so great an undertaking he was yet sent by him to examine and ADORE the venerable Body of S. Cecilia And though the cautious Synod of Trent said only that Reliques should be VENERATED yet seeing it neither condemned the Opinions of those who taught they were to be worshipped but rather allow'd the Acts of proper Divine Service to be paid to them What can we conclude but that they made use of a loose Expression to satisfy the more moderate Party of your Communion at the same time that they resolved by their practice to favour the Superstition of those who properly adored them 122. Now that this was truly the Case will appear First From what I have before said concerning the Holy CROSS which is consider'd by