and Angels than to God as it is apparent many Devotoes of the Virgin Mary do and this is to give Supreme and Soveraign Worship to them without acknowledging them to be Supreme Beings Indeed it is morally impossible but our Religious Worship trust and affiance must be at least equally shared between the Supreme God and our Mediator whatever he be as men do not less trust in the interest of their Patron than in the power of their Prince for it is not meer power but favour which is the immediate object of our trust and therefore God appointed his only begotten Son to be our Mediator as for other great and wise reasons so to prevent Idolatry by giving us a God incarnate who is a proper object of Religious adoration to be our Mediator that seeing men will worship their Mediator they may have a God for their Mediator to worship The sum is this If it be more for the glory of God to have all Religious Worship appropriated to himself than to have only a part of it and it may be the least share and part too then the worship of Saints and Angels cannot be for Gods glory But besides this the worship of Saints and Angels together with God does mightily obscure and lessen the Divine perfections and therefore it cannot be for his glory It represents him indeed like a great Temporal Monarch but it does not represents him like a God That which we ignorantly think a piece of state and greatness in earthly Monarchs to administer the great affairs of their Kingdoms to receive Petitions and Addresses to bestow Favours to administer Justice by other hands to have some great Ministers and Favourites to interpose between them and their Subjects is nothing else but want of power to do otherwise He would be a much greater Prince more beloved and reverenced who could do all this himself but no Prince can be present in all parts of his Kingdom nor know every particular Subject much less their particular cases and conditions deserts and merits and therefore is forc't to divide this care into many hands and in so doing shares his power and honour with his Subjects But whoever imagines any such thing of God denies his omnipresence his omnipotence his omniscience and his particular care and providence over his Creatures God indeed does not always govern the world by an immediate power but makes use both of the Ministry of Angels Men but he governs all things by his immediate direction or at least by his immediate inspection He overlooks every thing himself while all Creatures either obey his commands or submit to his power If this be the true notion of Gods governing the world that he has the concernments of the whole Creation under his eye and keeps the disposal of all things in his own hands so that nothing can be done but either by his order or permission then the most perfect and glorious Angels the greatest Ministers of the Divine Providence can challenge no share in Religious Worship cannot be the objects of our trust or hope because they are only Ministers of the Divine Will can do nothing from themselves as civil Ministers of State and Officers of great trust can in Temporal Kingdoms but are always under the eye and always move at the command of God In such a state of things all the peculiar rights of Soveraign Power and Dominion God reserves wholly to himself as any wife Prince would among which the receiving the Prayers and Petitions of his Creatures is none of the least to hear Prayers is made the peculiar attribute of God in Scripture Thou art a God that hearest prayers therefore unto thee shall all flesh come And reason tells us that it is the most eminent part of Soveraignty and Majesty and the reason why Temporal Princes do not reserve this wholly to themselves is because they cannot do it but God can and he challenges it to himself and will not allow any Creature to do it and there is no temptation to pray to any Creature when we know that they cannot help us that they must receive their orders and commands from God and not act by their own will and inclinations Thus Princes have their Eavourites to whom they express a very partial fondness and respect to whom they will deny nothing that they ask nor hardly shew any grace or favour to their Subjects without them and this forces Subjects to address themselves to their Prince by them but it is a reproach to the Divine Goodness and universal Providence to conceive any such thing of God which yet is the foundation of the worship of Patron Saints and Angels as persons so dear to God that he cannot deny their requests and will not grant our Petitions without them or at least that it is the most certain and effectual way to obtain what we desire to offer up our Prayers and Petitions to God by their hands No doubt but all good men on earth much more Blessed Saints and Angels in Heaven as being more perfect and excellent Creatures are very dear to God but yet God is not fond and partial in his kindness as earthly Princes are but has an equal regard to all his Creatures and delights in doing good to them and needs not to be importuned by any powerful Favourites to hear their cryes and prayers he will as soon attend to the Prayers of an humble penitent sinner as of the most glorious Saint and is more ready to grant than they are to ask A Mediator of Redemption is very consistent with all the perfections of the Divine Nature and does mightily recommend both the goodness and wisdom of God to the world When Manking had transgressed the Laws of their Creation they forfeited their natural right and interest in the care and goodness of their Maker The Divine Justice and the wisdom of God in the government of the world required an atonement and expiation for sin and it was an amazing demonstration of the Divine goodness to sinners that he found one himself that he gave his Son to be a propitiation for our sins When men by sin had forfeited their original innocence and happiness together they could expect nothing from God but by way of Covenant and promise and every Covenant between contending parties must be transacted in the hands of a Medaitor and none so fit to be our Mediator as he who is our ransome too And a Mediator must be invested with power and authority to see the terms of this Covenant performed and this is his Mediatory Intercession He intercedes not meerly as a powerful Favourite but as the Author and Surety of the Covenant not meerly by intreaties and prayers but in vertue of his blood which sealed the Covenant and made atonement and expiation for sin Thus Christ is our Mediator of redemption who hath redeemed us by his blood and we must offer up all our Prayers to God in his name and powerful intercession
because we can expect no blessings from God but by vertue of that Covenant which he purchast and sealed with his Blood But now a Mediator of pure intercession without regard to any atonement made for sin or any Covenant of redemption such as Saints and Angels and the blessed Virgin are made by the Church of Rome is a mighty reproach to the Divine Nature and perfections It cloaths God with the passions and infirmities of earthly Princes represents him as extreamly fond of some of his Creatures and very regardless of others as if his kindness to some favourite Saint were a more powerful motive to him to do good than his own love to goodness as if he knew not when nor to whom to shew mercy without their direction or counsel or would not do it without their importunity as if some of his Creatures had as much the ascendant over him as some favourites have over their Princes who can with a words speaking have any thing of them and extort favours from them even against their wills and inclinations No man can think there is any need of such Intercessors and Mediators with God who believes him to be infinitely wise and to be infinitely good to know when it is fit to hear and to answer and to be always ready to do what his own wisdom judges fit to be done There can be no place for such intercessions and intreaties to an infinitely perfect Being for they always suppose some great weakness or defect in him who wants them for even a wise and a good man wants no Mediators to perswade him to do that good which is fit to be done The Objection against this is very obvious and the Answer I think is as easie The Objection is this If God be so good that he needs not such Prayers and Intercessions to move him to do good Why do we pray for our selves Why do we pray for one another Why do we desire the Prayers of good men here on earth Why is it a greater reproach to the Divine Perfections to beg the Prayers of St. Paul or St. Peter now they are in Heaven than to have begged their Prayers while they had been on Earth To this I Answer When we pray for our selves I suppose we do not pray as Mediators but as Supplicants and nothing can be more reasonable than that those who want mercy or any other blessing should ask for it It is certainly no reproach to the Divine goodness that God makes Prayer the condition of our receiving which is a very easie condition and very necessary to maintain a constant sense and reverence of God and a constant dependance on him And when we pray for one another on earth we are as meer supplicants as when we pray for our selves and to pray as supplicants is a very different thing from praying as Advocates as Mediators as Patrons The vertue of the first consists only in the power and efficacy of Prayer the second in the favour and interest of the person This the Church of Rome her self owns when she allows no Mediators and Advocates but Saints in Heaven which is a sign she makes a vast difference between the prayers of Saints on earth and Saints in Heaven There are great and wise reasons why God should command and encourage our mutual prayers for each other while we are on earth for this is the noblest exercise of universal love and charity which is a necessary qualification to render our prayers acceptable to God this preserves the unity of the body of Christ which requires a sympathy and fellow-feeling of each others sufferings this is the foundation of publick worship when we meet together to pray with and for each other to our common Father and it gives a great reputation to vertue and Religion in this world when God hears the prayers of good men for the wicked and removes or diverts those judgments which they were afraid of this becomes the wisdom of God and is no blemish to his goodness to dispence his mercies and favours in such a manner as may best serve the great ends of Religion in this world God does not command us to pray for our selves or others because he wants our importunities and solicitations to do good but because it serves the publick ends of Religion and Government and is that natural homage and worship which Creatures owe to their great Creator and Benefactor and Soveraign Lord. But to imagine that God needs Advocates and Mediators to solicite our cause for us in the Court of Heaven where none of these ends can be served by it this is a plain impeachment of his wisdom and goodness as if he wanted great importunities to do good and were more moved by a partial kindness and respect to some powerful favourites than by the care of his Creatures or his love to goodness Erom hence it evidently appears how inconsequent that reasoning is from our begging the prayers of good men on earth to prove the lawfulness of our praying to the Saints in Heaven to pray and interceed for us the first makes them our fellow supplicants the second makes them our Mediators and Intercessors and how little the Church of Rome gains by that distinction between a Mediator of Redemption and Mediators of pure Intercession for though they pray to Saints and Angels only as Mediators of Intercession yet this is a real reproach to the nature and government of God a Mediator of Redemption is very consistent with the Divine glory and perfections a Mediator of pure intercession is not And the sum of all is this That it is so far from advancing the Divine glory to worship Saints and Angels together with God that it is a real reproach and dishonour to him and therefore this can be no Law nor Institution of our Saviour who came not to abrogate the Divine Laws but to fulfil and perfect them Some think there is no danger of dishonouring God by that honour they give to Saints and Angels because they honour them as Gods Friends and Favourites as those whom God has honoured and advanced to great glory and therefore whatever honour they do to them rebounds back again on God and this may be true while we give no honour to Saints and Angels but what is consistent with the Divine glory but when the very nature of that honour and worship we pay to them is a diminution of Gods glory and a reproach to his infinite perfections as I have made it appear the worship of Saints and Angels is surely it cannot be for Gods glory to advance his Creatures by lessening himself SECT VII 2. LEt us now consider whether the worship of Saints and Angels together with God be a more perfect state of Religion than the worship of God alone with respect to our selves whether it puts us into a more perfect and excellent state It does indeed mightily gratifie the superstition of mankind to have a multitude of Advocates and
difference that the Jewish worship was in Type and Figure and Ceremony the Christian worship in Truth and Substance And therefore if this legal and Evangelical worship be the same it must have the some object for the object is the most essential part of worship So that if it appear not only from the express letter of the Law of Moses but from all the Types and Figures of the Law that God only was to be worshipt by the Jewish Church if Christ was to fulfil all these Types and Figures in his own person and in the Evangelical worship then it is certain that the object of our worship must be the same still for if the Type was confined in its nature and signification to the worship of One God then the whole Christian worship which was signifyed and praesigured by these Types must be peculiar and appropriate to the same One Supreme God As for instance I have already proved at large that the Jews were to worship but One God because they had but one Temple to worship in and all their worship had some relation or other to this one Temple and therefore all their worship was appropriated to that One God whose Temple it was now we know Gods dweling in the Temple at Jerusalem was only a Type and Figure of Gods dwelling in Humane Nature upon which account Christ calls his body the Temple and St. John tells us That the word was made flesh and dwelt among us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tabernacled among us as God formerly dwelt in the Jewish Tabernacle or Temple and St. Paul adds That the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in Christ bodily 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 really substantially as an accomplishment of Gods dwelling by Types and Figures and shadows in the Jewish Temple Now if all the Jewish worship was confined to the Temple or had a necessary relation to it as I have already proved and this Temple was but a figure of the Incarnation of Christ who should dwell among us in humane nature then all the Christian worship must be offered up to God through Jesus Christ as all the Jewish worship was offered to God at the Temple for Christ is the only Temple in a strict and proper sense of the Christian Church and therefore he alone can render all our services acceptable to God So that God who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the only object of our worship and Christ considered as God Incarnate as God dwelling in humane nature is the only Temple where all our worship must be offered to God that is we shall find acceptance with God only in his name and mediation we must worship no other Being but only the Supreme God and that only through Jesus Christ. Thus under the Law the Priests were to intercede for the people but not without Sacrifice their Intercession was founded in making atonement and expiation for sin which plainly signified that under the Gospel we can have no other Mediator but only him who expiates our sins and intercedes in the merits of his Sacrifice who is our Priest and our Sacrifice and therefore our Mediator as St. John observes If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins The Law knew no such thing as a Mediator of pure intercession a Mediator who is no Priest and offers no Sacrifice for us and therefore the Gospel allows of no such Mediators neither who mediate onely by their Prayers without a Sacrifice such Mediators as the Church of Rome makes of Saints and Angels and the Virgin Mary but we have onely one Mediator a Mediator of redemption who has purchased us with his Blood of whom the Priests under the Law were Types and Figures Thus under the Law none but the High Priest was to enter into the Holy of Holies with the blood of the Sacrifice now the Holy of Holies was a Type of Heaven and therefore this plainly signified that under the Gospel there should be but one High Priest and Mediator to offer up our Prayers and Supplications in Heaven He and He onely who enters into Heaven with his own Blood as the High Priest went into the Holy of Holies with the blood of the Sacrifice There may be a great many Priests and Advocates on Earth to interceed for us as there were under the Law great numbers of Priests the Sons of Aaron to attend the Service and Ministry of the Temple but we have and can have but one Priest and Mediator in Heaven Whoever acknowledges that the Priesthood and Ministry of the Law was Typical of the Evangelical Priesthood and Worship cannot avoid the force of this Argument and whoever will not acknowledge this must reject most of St. Paul's Epistles especially the Epistle to the Hebrews which proceeds wholely upon this way of reasoning Now this manifestly justifies the worship of the Church of England as true Christian worship for we worship One God through one Mediator who offered himself a Sacrifice for us when he was on Earth and interceeds for us as our High Priest in Heaven which answers to the One Temple and the One High Priest under the Law But though the Church of Rome does what we do worship the Supreme God through Jesus Christ yet she spoils the Analogie between the Type and the Antitype the legal and Evangelical worship by doing more when she sends us to the Shrines and Altars of so many several Saints surely this cannot answer to that one Temple at Jerusalem where God alone was to be worshipped there are as many Temples and Mercy-seats now as there are Shrines and Altars of Saints and Angels by whose Intercession we may obtain our requests of God When she advances Saints and Angels to the Office of Mediators and Interceslsors in Heaven this contradicts the Type of One High Priest who alone might enter into the Holy of Holies which was a type of Heaven for there is some difference between having one Mediator in Heaven and there can be no more under the Gospel to answer to the Typical High Priest under the Law and having a hundred Mediators in Heaven together with our Typical High Priest To have a Mediator of pure Intercession in Heaven who never offered any Sacrifice for us cannot answer to the High Priest under the Law who could not enter into the Holy of Holies without the blood of the Sacrifice The High Priests entring but once a year into the Holy of Holies which was typical of Christs entring once into Heaven to intercede for us cannot be reconciled with a new succession of Mediators as ofter as the Pope of Rome pleases to cannonize them So that either the Law was not typical of the state of the Gospel or the Worship of Saints and Angels which is so contrary to all the types and figures of the Law cannot be true Christian Worship Sixthly I shall add but one thing
himself gives why he forbids the worship of any Being besides himself or the worship of graven Images I am the Lord that is my Name and my glory will I not give to another nor my praise to graven Images Whatever is his true glory he reserves to himself and therefore never did forbid any act of worship which was truly so but he will not give his glory to another and for that reason forbids the worship of graven Images or any thing besides himself and if this was not his glory then much less the most perfect and excellent part of worship I know not how it should come to be his glory now unless the Divine Nature changes and alters too So that Gods having forbid by the Law of Moses the worship of any other Being besides himself is a very strong presumption that the worship of Saints and Angels whatever fine excuses and Apologies may be made for it yet at least is not a more perfect state of Religion than to worship God alone For though God may not always think fit to command the highest degrees of perfection yet there never can be any reason to forbid it But let us now consider the nature and reason of the thing whether it be a more perfect state of Religion to worship God alone or to worship Saints and Angels c. together with the Supreme God Now the perfection of any acts of Religion must either respect God or our selves that they signifie some greater perfections in God or more perfect attainments in us and a nearer union and conjunction with the Deity Let us then briefly examine the worship of Saints and Angels both with respect to God and our selves and see whether we can discover any greater perfection in this way of worship than in the worship of the Supreme Being alone without any Rival or partner in worship and if it appears that it is neither for the glory of God nor for the happiness and perfection of those who worship we may certainly conclude that our Saviour has made no alteration in the object of our worship for he made no alteration for the worse but for the better he fulfils and perfects Laws which I suppose does not signifie making them less perfect than they were before SECT VI. 1. THen let us consider whether the worship of Saints and Angels be more for the glory of God than to pay all Religious Worship to God alone Now if Religious Worship be for the glory of God then all Religious Worship is more for Gods glory than a part of it unless men will venture to say that a part is as great as the whole And yet whoever worships Saints and Angels though he be neve so devout a worshipper of God also yet he gives part of Religious Worship to Creatures and therefore God cannot have the whole unless they can divide their worship between God and Creatures and yet give the whole to God If it be objected that those who worship Saints and Angels do not give that worship to them which is peculiar and appropriate to the Supreme God and therefore they reserve that worship which is due to God wholly to himself though they pay an inferiour degree of Religious Worship to Saints and Angels I answer what that worship is which is peculiar to the Supreme God I shall consider more hereafter but for the present supposing that they give only an inferiour degree of worship to Creatures is this Religious Worship or is it not if it be is a degree of Worship a part of Worship if it be then God has not the whole and therefore is not so much honoured as if he had the whole as to shew this in a plain instance Those who pray to Saints and Angels though they do not pray to them as to the Supreme God but as to Mediators and Intercessors for them with the Supreme God yet they place an inferiour degree of hope and trust and affiance in them or else it is non-sence to pray to them at all so that though God may be the Supreme Object of their relyance and hope yet he is not the only Object he has part and the greatest part but not the whole for they divide their hope and trust between God and Creatures and if it be a greater glory to God to trust wholly in him than to trust in him in part then it is a greater glory to God to pray to him only than to pray also to Saints and Angels Nay it is more than probable that those who pray to Saints and Angels as trusting in their merits and intercession for them do not make God but these Saints and Angels to whom they pray the Supreme Object of their hope This it may be will be thought an extravagant charge against men who profess to believe that God is the Supreme Lord of the world and the sole giver of all good things but this is no argument to me but that notwithstanding this belief they may trust more in Saints and Angels than in God and consequently give the Supreme Worship to them For men do not always trust most in those who have the greatest power but in those by whose interest and intercession they hope to obtain their desires of the Soveraign power Thus I am sure it is in the Courts of earthly Princes though men know that the King only has power to grant what they desire yet they place more confidence in a powerful Favorite than in their Prince and when they have obtained their requests pay more solemn acknowledgments to their Patron for let the power be where it will our hope and trust is plac't there where our expectations are And when mens expectations are not from the Prince who has the power but from the Favourite whose interest directs the influences of this power to them which otherwise would never have reacht them such Favourites have more numerous dependants more frequent addresses more formal courtships than the Prince himself And when men model the heavenly Court according to the pattern of earthly Courts and expect the conveyance of the Divine Blessings to them as much from the intercession of Saints and Angels as they do to obtain their desires of their Prince by the mediation of some powerful Favourite no wonder if they love and honour and fear reverence and adore trust and depend on Saints and Angels as much or more than they do on the Supreme God For there is not a more natural notion than to honour those for our Gods from whose hands we receive all good things whether we receive it from their own inherent power or not Deus nobis haec otia fecit Namque erit ille mihi semper Deus illius aram Saepe tener nostris ab ovilibus imbuet agnus Men may acknowledge God to be the Supreme Being and ascribe incommunicable perfections to him and yet may pray more frequently more devoutly more ardently with greater trust and affiance to Saints
Mediators to address to but there are three considerations which may satisfie any man how far this is from a perfect state of Religion 1. That it argues very mean and low conceits of God for did men believe God to be so wise so good and so powerful as really he is they would be contented with one infinite God instead of ten thousand meaner Advocates The worship of Saints and Angels as I have already proved is a great reproach to the Divine perfections and therefore such worshippers must have very imperfect and childish apprehensions of the Supreme Being which is a plain proof what an imperfect state of Religion this is for the perfection of Religion is always proportioned to that knowledge we have of God who is the object of it 2. This worship of Saints and Angels is a very servile state it subjects us to our fellow-creatures who are by nature but our equals however are not our Gods It is a state of liberty freedom and honour to be subject to God who is our natural Lord and Soveraign but to fall down to our fellow Creatures and to worship them with Divine honours with all humility of address and sacred and awful regards is to debase our selves as much below the dignity of our natures as we advance them above it The excellency and perfection of reasonable Creatures principally consists in their Religion and that is the most perfect Religion which does most advance adorn and perfect our Natures but it is an argument of an abject mind to be contented to worship the most excellent Creatures which is a greater dishonour than to own the vilest Slave for our Prince Mean objects of worship do more debase the Soul than any other the wilest submissions and the more our dependancies are and the meaner they are the more imperfect our State and Religion is 3. The greatest perfection of Religion consists in the nearest and most immediate approach to God which I think these men cannot pretend to who flye to the patronage and intercession of Saints and Angels to obtain their Petitions of him Though we should allow it lawful to pray to Saints and Angels to mediate for us with God yet we cannot but own it a more perfect state to do as the Saints and Angels themselves do go to God without any other Advocate but Christ himself It is a great happiness to have a freind at Court to commend us to our Prince when we have no interest of our own but it is a greater priviledge to go immediately to our Prince when we please without any Favourite to introduce us This is the perfect state of the Gospel that we have received The adoption of sins and because we are sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into our hearts crying Abba Father That is this Holy Spirit which dwells in us teaches us to call God Father and to pray to him with the humble assurance and confidence of Children This is the effect of Christ intertercession for us That we may now come boldly unto the throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in a time of need The throne of Grace certainly is not the shrine of any Saints but the immediate throne and presence of God whether we may immediately direct our Prayers through the merits and intercession of Christ. Upon the same account the whole body of Christians are called a Spiritual house that is the Temple of God where he is peculiarly present to hear those Prayers which are made to him An holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And a chosen generation a royal priesthood an holy nation a peculiar people This is a priviledge above what the Jews enjoyed they had a Priesthood to minister in holy things and to offer their Sacrifices for them but the whole Nation was not a Priesthood nor had such immediate access to God but now every Christian has as near an access to God as the Priests themselves under the Law had can offer up his Prayers and Spiritual Sacrifices immediately to God and that very acceptably too through Jesus Christ our great High Priest and Mediator and if our Prayers be acceptable to God by Jesus Chrrist we need no other Mediators or Advocates This is the onely direction our Saviour gave his Disciples a little before his death to ask in his name with this promise If ye ask any thing in my name I will do it Hither to have you asked nothing in my name ask and ye shall receive that your joy may be full And to give them the greater assurance of acceptance he acquaints them with Gods great and tender affection for them such as a Father has for his Children At that day ye shall ask in my name and I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you for the Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me and have believed that I came out from God a reason which equally extends to all those who shall believe in Christ to the end of the world And can we now imagine that when our Saviour has purchast for us this liberty of access to God he should send us round about by the shrines and Altars of numerous and unknown Saints to the Throne of Grace When he will not assert the necessity of his own Prayers for us while we pray in his name because our heavenly Father hath such a tender affection for all the Disciples of Christ can we think it necessary to pray to St. Paul and St. Peter and the Virgin Mary to pray for us This is none of our Saviours institution nor can it be because Christ by his death and sufferings and intercessions brings us nearer to God as the Apostle to the Hebrews speaks Having therefore Brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the vail that is to say his flesh and having an high Priest over the house of God let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of Faith But the worship of Saints and Angels removes us at a great distance from God as not daring to approach his presence without the mediation of some Favourite Saint And though the Church of Rome does sometimes pray directly to God only in the Name and Mediation of Christ as the Pagans themselves sometimes did to their Supreme Deity yet it seems this is what they dare not trust to and therefore joyn the Meditation of Saints with their Prayers to God and never pray to God without it SECT VIII 5. THat the Gospel of our Saviour has made no alteration in the object of our worship appears from that Analogie which there is and ought to be between the Jewish and Christian Worship The Jewish and Christian Church are but one Church and their worship the same worship only with this
of this then it seems God did not think this a good reason for praying to Saints and Angels in Heaven because good men might beg each others prayers on earth for if he had he would not have made that Law which forbids such a Religious Invocation of any Creature And if notwithstanding this reason which had as much force then as it has now God made and promulged this Law this reason can never repeal it nor dissolve the obligation of it Thus if the Saints Angels being in Heaven be a good reason why they should be worshipped this was as good a reason at the giving of the Law as it is now for thô we should suppose with the Church of Rome that Saints departed were not in Heaven then yet certainly the Angels were and if their being in Heaven made them fit objects of our worship why did God so expresly forbid it and if he forbad it then when there was as much reason to allow the worship of those heavenly Inhabitants as there is now this argument cannot prove but that God forbids it still The same may be said of the Intercession of Saints and Angels The Papists suppose that the Saints and Angels pray and intercede for us in Heaven and obtain for and convey many blessings to us and therefore it is good and profitable to pray to them and to flie to their patronage now though indeed they date the Intercession of Saints as they do their admission into heaven from the Resurrection of our Saviour yet there is as much evidence for the aids and intercessions of Angels before and under the Law as there is now nay I think somewhat more for the government of the world was much more under the administration of Angels in the time of the Law then it is now and yet notwithstanding this God did by an express Law forbid the worship of any Being but himself and therefore of these Angelical powers who are somewhat superiour to Saints in Heaven and if this were no good reason against making this Law it can be no good reason to prove the abrogation of it 2. The next way they take to evade the obligation of this Law of worshipping God only is by distinctions As to name the chief of them They tell us that this Law is only opposed to the worship of false Gods such Gods as the Heathens worshipped not to the worship of Saints and Angels who are the Friends and Favourites of God And then they distinguish about the nature of worship they confess there is a worship which is peculiar to God Supreme and Soveraign worship which is peculiar to the Supreme Being and this for what reason I know not they call Latria but then there is an inferiour degree of worship which they call Dulia which may be given to excellent Creatures to Saints and Angels who reign with Christ in Heaven They farther distinguish between absolute and relative worship Absolute worship is when we worship a Being for its self and thus God onely is to be worshipped but relative worship is when we worship one Being out of respect to another and thus we may worship Saints and Angels upon account of their relation to God Now I shall have occasion to examine these distinctions more particularly hereafter my business at present is to examine how far these distinctions can justifie the worship of Saints and Angels against an express Law which commands us to worship God only And I have three things to say on this argument 1. That the letter of the Law will admit of no such distinctions as these 2. That the Scripture no where allows of any such distinctions And 3. That no distinctions can justifie our acting against the letter of a Law which have not the same authority which the Law has 1. The letter of the Law will admit of no such distinctious as these The Law is Thou shalt have none other Gods before me The explication of this Law is Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God him shalt thou serve and to him shalt thou cleave and swear by his name Or as our Saviour expounds it Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Now these words do plainly exclude the worship of all other Beings besides the Supreme God They exclude indeed the worship of all the Heathen Gods which were at that time worshipped in the world but they are not confined to the worship of the Heathen Gods nor meerly to the worship of those Gods who were at that time worshipt but should any new Gods start up in after Ages whether among Jews or Christians the words extend to all that are and all that ever shall be worshipped Thou shalt have none other Gods before Me Signifies that we must worship no other Being but the Supreme God for to have a God is to give religious worship to some Being as appears from that exposition which both Moses and our Saviour Christ gives of it Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve For it is impossible to have any God besides the Supreme God in any other sense than as we worship some other Being besides the Supreme God with Divine honours and whatever Being we so worship become our God and therefore this Law forbids the worship of any Being which is not God be it Saint or Angel or the Virgin Mary how excellent and perfect Creatures soever they be they are not our God and therefore must not be worshipped If we must worship and serve God onely as our Saviour expresly tells us that we must worship no Creature whatever it be the worship of Saints and Angels is as expresly forbid by this Law as the worship of the Heathen Gods for that Law which commands us to worship God onely excludes the worship of all Creatures whatever they be But may not the meaning of this Law be onely this That we must not give Supreme and Soveraign worship to any other Being but the Supreme God but we may give an inferiour degree of worship to some excellent Spirits who under God have the care of us And is not this plainly signified in the very letter of the Law when it says Thou shalt have none other Gods before me For no other worship makes any Being a God but that which is Supreme and Soveraign peculiar and appropriate to the One Supreme God and therefore not to have any other Being for our God is not to give Supreme and Soveraign worship to it Now what that worship is which is peculiar and appropriate to the Supreme God I shall discourse particularly in the second part our present inquiry is whether this Law makes any such distinction The Laws says Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve Here is no distinction between Supreme and Subordinate worship whatever is an Act of worship must be given to God onely But the Law says Thou shalt have no