had for the Pagan Deities in assuming their names and worship let others consider But to return to the Bishop He having assured us that the Church of Rome does not ascribe any divine perfections to the Saints of which the Reader may judge by what I have already discoursed he thus concludes It is therefore true that by examining what are our interiour Sentiments concerning the Saints it will be found we do not raise them above the condition of creatures and from thence we ought to judge of what nature that exteriour honour is which we render them exteriour Veneration being established to testifie the interior Sentiments of the mind That is we must conclude they do not give the worship of God to them because they do not believe them to be Gods Now this I confess would be true were the external Signs of honour wholly arbitrary and at our own choice for then they could signifie no more than what we intend to signifie by them and we ought not to be charged with intending to signifie more than what we profess to intend but when either the Act of worship naturally signifies divine perfections as prayer to an Invisible Being does or God has reserved any Acts of worship to himself as he has done all Religious Worship that is all Worship paid to Invisible Beings as I have already shewn in these cases we may be guilty of giving divine honours to creatures though in words and intention we ascribe no divine perfections to them So that I cannot see but that after all the fine colours and soft interpretations which the Bishop puts upon this practice of the Church of Rome in praying to Saints the charge against them of giving the peculiar worship of God to creatures is as strong and forcible as ever Secondly let us now consider whether our praying to the Saints to pray and intercede for us be not injurious to the Merits and Mediation of Christ. Now there are two things the Bishop urges to prove that the Mediation of Saints is not injurious to the Mediation of Christ. 1. That if the quality of Mediator which the Scriptures gives to Jesus Christ received any prejudice from the Intercession made to the Saints who raign with God it would receive no less from the intercession made to the Faithful who live with us For this he alledges the Authority of the Catechism ad Parochos which tells us That if it were not lawful to desire help of the Saints because we have one Patron or Mediator Jesus Christ the Apostle would not so earnestly have desired the Prayers of the Brethren who were then living to God for him For the glory and dignity of Christ as Mediator is not less diminished by the Prayers of the Living than by the Intercession of Saints in Heaven This is the least that can be made of it that the Mediation and Intercession of the Saints for us in Heaven is no more than one Christians praying for another on Earth and I fear this is not reconcileable with the practice of the Church of Rome in this matter For can this if it be no more be thought a sufficient foundation for all that pompous worship of the Virgin Mary and other powerful Saints Is this a good reason to erect Temples and Altars consecrated not only to their Memory but to their Honour to set up their Images in Holy Places and pay our humble Adorations before them because they pray for us in Heaven just as Christian Brethren pray for one another on Earth And therefore I must needs say the Bishop has not truly expounded the Doctrine of the Church of Rome in this Point which makes the Saints to be our Mediators in Heaven not indeed Mediators of Redemption which she acknowledges none to be but Christ who has purchased us with his own Blood but Mediators of Intercession who have so much interest and favour in the Court of Heaven as powerfully to recommend those to God who put themselves under their Patronage This I confess makes a great difference between the Mediation of Christ and of the Saints and yet leaves a great distance between the Prayers of Saints in Heaven for us and the mutual Intercessions of Christians for each other on Earth and the Church of Rome never taught that they were of the same nature for though the Catechism endeavours to prove that the Mediation and Intercession of the Saints in Heaven for us is not injurious to the Mediation of Christ because the Prayers of Christians for each other on Earth are very reconcileable with the Honour of Christ's Intercession yet it never teaches that there is no difference between the Prayers of Saints in Heaven and Christians on Earth and I think we ought to distinguish between the Doctrine and the Arguments of the Church What she declares to be her Doctrine we must own to be so but I think we must not grant every thing to be her Domakes which ought to be supposed to make her Arguments good because there is no necessity of granting that all her Arguments must be good This Argument indeed that the intercession of the Saints in Heaven is no more injurious to the Mediation of Christ than the Prayers and Intercessions of the Saints on Earth for each other cannot be good without supposing that the Intercessions of the Saints in Heaven are of the very same nature with the Prayers of Christians for each other on Earth and the Bishop takes the advantage to represent this as the Doctrine of the Church that she teaches us to pray to Saints in the same spirit of Charity and according to the same order of fraternal society which moves us to demand assistance of our Brethren living upon Earth But this I think is not reconcileable with the express words of the Council of Trent which founds the invocation of Saints upon their reigning with Christ which makes a vast difference between their interest and authority in the Court of Heaven and the humble supplications of Christians on Earth And I think the spirit of Charity and the order of fraternal society does not require us supplicitèr invocare to pray to our fellow Christians on Earth as humble Supplicants to pray for us as the Council teaches us to address our selves to the Saints in Heaven Christians indeed on Earth and Saints in Heaven since the Bishop has limited all their aid and assistance to their prayers can do no more than pray for us and are thus both of them distinguished from Christ who is our Mediator of Redemption who has bought us with his blood But then we ought to consider that there is a vast difference in prayers and prayers may prevail upon such different Reasons as may quite alter the nature of the Intercessions For is there no difference between the power and interest of a favourite to obtain what he desires of his Prince and the Petition of an ordinary Subject A Prince may grant the Petition
of a Subject for himself or of one Subject for another where there is reason and equity in the case without any more powerful intercession but acts of grace and favour must be dispensed by the intercession of favourites and yet it is all by way of prayer and Petition to the Prince but though it is all but Petition and request yet those who have any request to make to their Prince place more confidence in the interest and power of one favourite than in the joynt Petitions of many ordinary Subjects Thus it is here Christians on Earth pray for each other as common Supplicants and the benefit they expect from such Prayers and Intercessions is only from the prevalency of Faith and Charity which inspire such prayers and make them efficacious God has commanded us to pray for one another and has promised to hear our united fervent and importunate Prayers for the merits of our common Saviour Jesus Christ But those who pray to Saints in Heaven pray to them as Favourites and Mediators who prevail not meerly by the force and efficacy of Prayer but by their personal Merits and Interests with God and this makes them just such Mediators as Christ is who by their Power and Interest can recommend us and our Prayers to God's acceptance No you 'll say Christ purchased us with his Blood and mediates in the vertue of his Sacrifice which makes his Mediation of a different nature from the Mediation of Saints who mediate only by their interest with God upon account of their personal Merits But this alters not the case for the general notion of a Mediator is one who has Power and Interest with God effectually to recommend us to his favour and whether he mediates with or without a Sacrifice if his Mediation be powerful and efficacious he is a true and proper Mediator and to set up such other Mediators besides Christ must be injurious to his Mediation for then Christ is not our only Mediator and after all the Apologies that can be made for it it argues some distrust either of Christ's Power or good Will to help us when we fly to other Patrons and Advocates 2. And therefore Monsieur de Meaux has another Reserve for in the second place he tells us from the Council of Trent That to invocate Saints according to the sense of this Council is to have recouâ—se to their Prayers for obtaining benefits from God through Jesus Christ so that in reality we do not obtain those benefits which we receive by the Intercession of the Saints otherwise than through Jesus Christ and in his Name seeing these Saints themselves pray in no other manner than through Jesus Christ and are not heard but in his Name After which we cannot imagine that any one should accuse us of forsaking Jesus Christ when we beseech his Members who are also ours his Children who are our Brethren and his Saints who are our first fruits to pray with us and for us to our common Master in the name of our common Mediator As for forsaking Jesus Christ this we do not charge them with tho whoever considers how much more frequent addresses are made in the Church of Rome to the Virgin Mary and some other powerful Saints than to Christ himself will be tempted to think that it looks very like forsaking him but we only say that they rob Christ of the glory of being our only Mediator and Advocate by having recourse to the Prayers and intercessions of so many Saints But how can the Intercession of Saints be injurious to the Mediation of Christ when they themselves intercede in the Name and Mediation of Christ which necessarily reserves to Christ the glory of his Mediation entire since the Saints themselves are not heard but in his Name Now rightly to understand this we must consider the Nature of Christs Mediation which is to offer up all those Prayers to God in Heaven which we make to God in his name on Earth He is our Mediator in Heaven our High-Priest who is passed into the Heavens who is made not after the law of a Carnal Commandment but after the power of an endless life who is made higher than the Heavens who is not entred into the Holy Place made with hands which are the figures of the true but into Heaven it self now to appear in the presence of God for us So that as the High-Priest under the Law entred once a year into the Holy Place which was a type and figure of Heaven to make expiation and intercessions for the People so the Office of Christ as our High-Priest and Mediator is to ascend into Heaven with his own Blood and there to appear in the presence of God for us His mediatory Office is confined to Heaven there he presents our Prayers to God in vertue of his own Blood and this is as peculiar and appropriated to him as it was to the High-Priest under the Law to offer the Blood of the Sacrifice and make Attonement and Intercession in the Holy of Holies So that to present our Prayers to God in Heaven is the peculiar office of Christ who is our great High-Priest and only Mediator in the immediate presence of God in Heaven and to apply our selves to any other Mediators in Heaven to present our Prayers to God in what manner or upon what pretence soever it be is injurious to the Mediation of Christ whose proper Office it is to present our Prayers to God in Heaven And that pretence that the Saints pray for us only in the Name and Mediation of Christ is no Apology in this case for in what name soever they pray they offer up our Prayers to God immediately in Heaven which is the Office of our great High-Priest for there is and must be but be but one Mediator in Heaven And if we consider what is meant by Praying to God in the Name and Mediation of Christ we shall see reason to think that this is very improperly attributed to the Saints in Heaven For when we pray to God in the Name of Christ though we address our Prayers immediately to God yet God does not receive them as coming immediately from us but as presented by the hands of our Mediator which is the true meaning of Praying to God in the Name of Christ that we offer our Prayers to God not directly from our selves for then we should have no need of a Mediator but by his Hands whose Office it is to present them to God to appear in the Presence of God for us which is therefore called coming to God by him Now this is very agreeable to the state and condition of Christians on Earth who are at a great distance from the immediate Throne and Presence of God to offer their Prayers by the hands of a Mediator who appears in the presence of God for them and the reason why we want a Mediator to appear for us is because we are not yet
Supreme God and created Spirits and Glorifyed Souls of dead men and therefore if it be necessary to distinguish between the Worship of God and Creatures we must worship no Invisible Being but only the Supreme God The Protester proposes some ways whereby the different kinds and degrees of Religious Worship may be distinguished as by the intention of the Giver but this is not a Visible Distinction For mens intentions are private to themselves and there is no difference in the Visible Acts of Worship to make such a distinction or by some Visible Representation that is by Images This I grant would make as visible a Distinction between the Worship of God and Christ and the Virgin Mary as the presence of the person distinguishes the Kinds and Degrees of Civil Honour for when we see whose Image they worship we may certainly tell what Being they direct their Worship to but the fault of this is that it is forbid by the Law of God of which more in the next Section or by Determination of other Circumstances but what these are I cannot tell and therefore can say nothing to it The Church of Rome indeed does appropriate the Sacrifice of the Mass to God as his peculiar Worship which must not be given to any other Being and if this be so then indeed we can certainly tell when we see a Priest offering the Sacrifice of the Mass that he offers it to the Supreme God but there are a great many other Acts of Worship which we owe to God besides the Sacrifice of the Mass and in every Act of Worship God ought to be visibly distinguished from Creatures and yet if all the other External Acts of Worship be common to God and Creatures where is the distinction And yet the Sacrifice of the Mass can be offered only by the Priest so that the whole Layety cannot perform any one Act of Worship to God which is peculiar to him and therefore can make no Visible Distinction in their Worship between God and Creatures And yet the very Sacrifice of the Mass is not so appropriated to God in the Church of Rome but that it is offered to God in Honour of the Saints This the Bishop of Condom p. 7. endeavours to excuse by saying This Honour which we render them the Saints in Sacrificing consists in naming them in the Prayers we offer up to God as his Faithful Servants and in rendring him thanks for the Victories they have gained and in humbly beseeching him that he would vouchsafe to favour us by their Intercession Now it is very true according to the Council of Trent the Priest offers the Sacrifice only to God but they do somewhat more than name the Saints in their Prayers for they offer the Sacrifice in Honour to the Saints as well as to God which the Bishop calls to Honour the Memory of the Saints Now if Sacrifice be an Act of Honour and Worship to God it sounds very odly to worship or honour God for the Honour of his Saints which seems to make God only the Medium of Worship to the Saints who are the terminative object of it and that the Saints are concerned in this Sacrifice appears from this That by this Sacrifice they implore the Intercession of the Saints that those whose Memories we celebrate on Earth would vouchsafe to intercede for us in Heaven The Bishop translates implorat by Demand for what reason I cannot tell and makes this Imploring or Beseeching to refer to God not to the Saints whose Patronage Patrocinia and Intercession they pray they would vouchsafe them contrary to the plain Sense of the Council and I think to common Sense too For I do not well understand offering Sacrifice to God that he may procure for us the Intercession of the Saints for if he can be perswaded to favour us so far as to intercede with the Saints to be our Intercessors he may as well grant our Requests without their Intercession and yet the Bishop was very sensible that if we offer up our Prayers to the Saints in the Sacrifice of the Mass it does inevitably entitle them to the Worship of that Sacrifice which they say must be offered only to God He alleadges indeed St. Austin's Authority who understood nothing of this Mystery of the Sacrifice of the Mass and how far he was from thinking of any thing of this Nature is evident to any man who consults the place But the Church of Rome as the Bishop observes p. 8. has been charged by some of the Reformation not only with giving the Worship of God to Creatures when they pray to the Saints but with attributing the Divine Perfections to them such as a certain kind of Immensity and Knowledge of the Secrets of hearts for if they be not present in all places where they are worshipped how can they hear the Prayers which are made to them at such distant places at the same time If they do not know our thoughts how can they understand those mental prayers which are offered to them without words only in our secret Thoughts and Desires for even such Prayers are expresly allowed by the Council voce vel mente Now to this he answers very well that though they believe the Saints do by one means or other know the Prayers which are made to them either by the Ministry and Communication of Angels or by a particular Revelation from God or in his Divine Essence in which all truth is comprised yet never any Catholick yet thought the Saints knew our Necessities by their own power no nor the desires which move us to address our secret Prayers to them And to say a Creature may have a Knowledge of these things by a light communicated to them by God is not to elevate a Creature above his Condition This I grant and therefore do acknowledge that they do not attribute the Divine perfections of Omniscience and Omnipresence to the Saints either in thought or word but yet actions have as natural a signification as words and if we give them such a worship as naturally signifies Omniscience and Omnipresence our worship attributes the incommunicable Perfections of God to them For it is unnatural and absurd to worship a Being who is not present to receive our worship to speak to a Being who does not and cannot hear us and since God has made us reasonable Creatures to understand what we do and why he interprets our Actions as well as words and thoughts according to their natural signification And herein the natural evil of creature-worship consists That every act of religious worship does naturally involve in it a Confession of some excellency and perfection which is above a created nature and thereby whatever the worshipper thinks or intend does attribute the incommunicable Glory of God to creatures If the Saints are not present in all places to hear those Prayers which are made to them and if they cannot hear in Heaven what we say to them
and they have then good reason as they do to put up more frequent Prayers to her than to God or Christ himself And whether they do not believe this and that at this very day let any one judge from these passages in the Contemplations of the Life and Glory of the Holy Mary which is lately published in English Permissu Superiorum There p. 7. he tell us that God hath by a Solemn Covenant pronounced Mary to be the Treasury of Wisdom Grace and Sanctity under Jesus So that whatever Gifts are bestowed upon us by Jesus we receive them by the Mediation of Mary No one being gracious to Jesus who is not devoted to Mary nor hath any one been specially confident of the Patronage of Mary who hath not through her received a special Blessing from Jesus Whence it is one great mark of the Predestination of the Elect to be singularly Devoted to Mary since she hath a full Power as a Mother to obtain of Jesus whatever he can ask of God the Father and is comprehended within the Sphere of man's Predestination to Glory Redemption from Sin and Regeneration by Grace Neither hath any one petitioned Mary who was refused by Jesus nor trusted in Mary and was abandoned by Jesus A little after he directs the Devotes of the Virgin to have a firm and unshaken confidence in her Patronage amidst the greatest of our inward Conflicts with Sensuality and outward Tribulations from the adverse Casualties of this Life through a strong Judgment of her eminent Power within the Empire of Jesus grounded upon the singular Prerogative of her Divine Maternity for by vertue thereof no State of man can be so unhappy through the malice of Satan the heats of our Passions or the Enormity of Sin which exceeds her Love towards the Disciples of Jesus or the efficacy of her Mediation for us unto Jesus So that though the condition of some great Sinners may be so deplorable that all the limited Excellency Merits and Power of all the Saints and Angels cannot effectually bend the Mercies of Jesus to receive them yet such is the acceptableness of the Mother of Jesus to Jesus that whoever is under the Verge of her Protection may confide in her Intercessions to Jesus He denying no Favour to her whereby the Wonders of man's Predestination and Redemption through Jesus may be magnified and promoted So that the Blessed Virgin is more Powerful than all the Saints and Angels in Heaven she has all the Power of Christ all his Grace and Mercy in her hands and can dispense it to such Sinners whom Christ would not pity and relieve without her and therefore is a more powerful Patroness of Sinners than Christ himself is And therefore he might well add in the next place that all these Blessings flow from Jesus to all through Mary and may therefore justly refer them all to her as to the most effectual Instrument Channel and Conveyance of all Now if this be true Representing it is no Mis-representation to say that a Papist believes the Virgin Mary to be much more Powerful in Heaven than Christ not that she has any Power of her own but that she can more powerfully and effectually bend the Mercies of Jesus to relieve Sinners than the mercies of Jesus can bend themselves without her SECT V. IMAGES THAT the Worship of Images as it was practised by the Heathens is Idolatry Monsieur de Meaux and the Representer suppose and therefore their Business is to give such an account of the Worship of Images as practised in the Church of Rome as to distinguish themselves from Heathen Idolaters To this purpose the Bishop tells us The Council of Trent forbids us expresly to believe any Divinity or Virtue in them for which they ought to be reverenced to demand any favour of them or to put any trust in them and ordains That all the Honour which is given to them should be referred to the Saints themselves which are represented by them That the Honour we render Images is grounded upon their exciting in us the remembrance of those they represent That by humbling our selves before the Image of Christ crucified we show what is our submission to our Saviour So that to speak precisely and according to the Ecclesiastical Stile when we honour the Image of an Apostle or Martyr our intention is not so much to honour the Image as to honour the Apostle or Martyr in the presence of the Image Thus the Pontifical tells us and the Council of Trent expresses the same thing when it says The Honour we render to Images has such a reference to those they represent that by the means of those Images which we kiss and before which we kneel we adore Jesus Christ and honour the Saints whose Types they are To the same purpose the Representer speaks and almost in the same words So that the Sum of their Apology is this That they do not believe Images to have any Divinity in them or to be Gods and therefore do not pray to nor put their trust in the Image nor so much honour the Image in those external Expressions of Reverence they pay to it by kissing it and kneeling before it as Christ or the Saint whom the Image represents and the usefulness of Images to excite in us the remembrance of those whom we love and honour is a justifiable Reason of that Honour we pay to them This is a Matter of very great consequence and deserves to be carefully stated and therefore I shall strictly examine Whether this Exposition will justify the worship of Images and sufficiently distinguish the Worship of the Ch. of Rome from that Worship which the Heathens gave to their Images Monsieur de Meaux pretends by his Exposition of the Doctrines of the Church of Rome to cut off Objections and Disputes that is so to state the Matter that there may be no place for those Objections which Protestants commonly urge against worshipping Images But I do not see that he has made any Essay of this Nature in the Point of Image-Worship but has left both all the Disputes among themselves and with Protestants untouched The Objections which Protestants urge against the Worship of Images as taught and practised in the Church of Rome are principally these four 1. That it is expresly forbid by the second Commandment without any limitation or exception 2. That the Heathens are in Scripture charged with Idolatry in the Worship of Images 3. That it is a violation of the Divine Majesty crimen lesse Majestatis to represent God by a material and sensless Image or Picture 4. That a visible Object of Worship though considered only as a Representation is expresly contrary to the Law of Moses and especially to the spiritual Nature of the Christian Worship Now I do not see how the Bishop's Exposition takes off any of these Objections which after all that he hath said are in full force still as I shall particularly