they appear much more particularly reserved to his own knowledge For this does not clear Mental Praying to the Saints from the consequence we charge it with unless they were sure that as God discovered some future things to the Prophets so he does also perpetually reveal the Prayers of our mind to the Saints The Instance shews what is needless that God can do it if he please it does not shew that he does it and that only would have been to the purpose Besides whatever Opinion they have of the Lawfulness and Profitableness of praying to Saints they should have been very much afraid to affirm them to be Mediators of Intercession when without any distinction the Scripture does not only give to Christ the Quality of a Mediator as M. de Meaux (c) Exp. p. 6. grants but likewise the Quality of our Only Mediator as he should have granted For as there is one God so (d) 1 Tim. 2.5 there is one Mediator between God and Men the Man Christ Jesus Much less should Men have been encouraged to make immediate Applications to the Saints more frequently than to God or to Christ as if the Saints were more easily prevailed with by our Prayers than our God and Saviour These Excesses were too notorious to be denied but withall they were too Scandalous to be confessed but in all reason they ought to have been severely reproved M. de Meaux would have us to observe that the Council teaches It is good and profitable to pray to the Saints And we do observe that tho the Fathers were not insensible of the extravagant Practices and Doctrines in this matter that were currant amongst them yet they would not vouchsafe to note them with the least Censure but were content to let them go on as they had done before Moreover they pray to the B. Virgin to protect them from the Enemy to receive them at the hour of Death to be propitious to them to spare them to give them strength to give them grace to open the gate of Everlasting life to them and for all that a good Christian can ask of God Such like Prayers do they also offer to the other Saints But neither shall I stay upon this because they do not go about to justifie it amongst us otherwise then by pretending that they say what they do not mean and that the Intention of the Church and of her Faithful Exp. p. 6. reduces these Prayers always to this Form that the Saints would pray for us Now when they confess p. 9. that the outward Veneration is established to testifie the inward sentiments of the Mind we desire no greater evidence of self-Condemnation in this Case then to hear them say quite backward that the intention of the Church and her Faithful is establisht to explain the meaning of so considerable a part of their outward Worship But in the mean time God help the common People if they are to be judged after their own Intentions and Understandings and not the Intentions and Expositions of some few Guides of their Church To name no more of these Enormities their dividing to the Saints their several Offices in their Prayers to them is a most unaccountable Superstition i. e. That one Saint is applied to for the cure of one Disease and another for another and some peculiar things desired of almost every one For how can they perswade us that they desire nothing of the Saints but the help of their Prayers when they attribute to each Saint his particular Vertue and Power unless they think that St. Apollonia's Intercession is not as effectual against the Gout as the Tooth-ach §. 3. But setting aside these Excesses which several moderate Men of their own Church have complain'd of but all to no purpose let us hear what they say in behalf of Praying to the B. Virgin and to the Saints at all supposing it be for nothing but to pray for them as one Creature may do for another and that they speak to her and them in Hymns and Strains which as to the matter therein contained do not exalt them above the condition of Creatures In one word why they address to her and the rest of the Saints with any sort of formal Invocation We dare not do this because we believe Prayer to be an Essential Part of Gods Worship inasmuch as 't is sometimes put for the whole How shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed i. e. How shall they serve and Worship him 'T is so incommunicable a Worship that God himself described his own House by it My house shall be called an house of Prayer And surely when God named his house by some part of that Service that was performed there he would chuse such a part as was peculiar to himself This and much more we say for our selves But to all that we can say they give this plausible Answer (a) What have they to say to this Prayer Pray for us I◠it not word for word St. Pauls Is it more injurious to the Creator because in the same Spirit we address to the Saints that live with him Past Let. p. 16. That it makes no more against their practice in desiring the Prayers of their Brethren in Heaven then against theirs and ours in desiring the Prayers of our Brethren upon Earth and as Monsieur de M. sayes that it is profitable to pray to the 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 Exp. p. 6. Now this is a very popular way to save themselves from blame but by no means sufficient For there is a Concurrence of other Reasons to make it profitable to desire the Prayers of our Brethren upon Earth besides these two that they are our Brethren and that we love one another God has manifestly approved it in the Holy Scriptures that is one Reason Besides we are also sure that when we desire our Brethren upon Earth to pray for us that they hear us that is another reason But neither of these Reasons can be justly produced to shew the Profitableness of Praying to the Saints departed But because this is the most common and colourable Defence they make I shall further shew what may and ought to be replied to it by the People of our Communion They say we may as lawfully desire those in Heaven to Pray for us as those on Earth But let us then tell them that when we ask of one another things proper to be asked these Requests are by no means that which we understand by Prayer or Religious Invocation and that themselves do not so account them Monsieur de M. clearly gives them another name p. 6.7 he calls it beseeching or demanding the assistance of our Brethren But men of all Religions do agree this to be a quite different thing from that part of Religion which we
call Prayer And to make this matter so plain that it can neither be misunderstood nor denied Suppose a Man visited with the Pestilence or any other dangerous Distemper to desire his Physitian to apply his best Skill to recover him Is this Prayer or Religious Invocation No they will not say it is But if the same Person desires the B. Virgin or St. Roche or St. Sebastian to restore him to health This they will confess to be Prayer And the reason of the Difference is not that the Physitian is desired to help the Patient by his skill in natural Remedies and the Saints by their Intercession with God For suppose that the Patient sends for the Priest and desires him to pray for him they will not say that this Desire is a Prayer to the Priest or a Religious Invocation of him They will tell you that the Sick Man desires or demands the assistance of the Priests Prayers But still if he calls upon the B. Virgin or any of the Saints departed to help him by their Prayers this is properly and in the account of Religion praying to them What then is the reason of the Difference for here is a Request made to the Priest and to the Saint and the same Request too why is one Prayer and the other not Now though we should not perfectly agree with our Adversaries about the reason of the Difference yet so long as it is and must be acknowledged that the honest Requests we make to one another upon Earth are not that part of Religion which we call Prayer but that the Requests which we make to the departed Saints are Prayer so long I say as this is granted 't is plain That this their common Argument It is lawful and profitable to desire the assistance of our Brethrens Prayers here upon Earth and therefore it is lawful and profitable to call upon those in Heaven to assist us with their Prayers is very deceitful For this is as much as to say Those Requests which are not Prayer may be lawfully made to Creatures and therefore those which are Prayer may be made to Creatures as lawfully as those that are not Now if you desire to know what it is in this case that makes the difference I think the Answer is very plain For the difference is not to be taken 1. From the Matter of the Request for that is the same Nor 2. from the Persons themselves to whom the request is made for if the Saint departed were here why would my requesting of the same thing be Prayer to him and not to the Priest And therefore 3. It must necessarily lye in the different Circumstances of the Priest and the Saint that the former is with me and the latter is absent from me Requests made to the Faithful are made to those that are within the compass of civil Conversation But the same Requests made to the B. Virgin and the Saints are made to those that are departed out of the compass of civil Conversation And this is that which makes them not to be Prayer in the former case and to be Prayer in the latter But if it be further inquired why it is Prayer to ask the same things of those that are distant from civil Conversation which to ask of those that are within the compass of it is not Prayer The Reason seemes plainly to be this That when I address my self to one that is within the compass of civil Conversation in which Men use to hear or to understand one another my Assurance that he hears me does no way ascribe to him a Knowledge or a Presence which is above the Condition of a Creature But if I invoke the Saints every where with Assurance that they hear me I have no other reasonable ground of such Assurance then that they are every where present at the same time For if I acknowledge that there is a certain limited Compass within which they can hear and know let this Limit be never so wide how can I be assured that they are not out of that Compass when I speak to them But the Romanists pray every where to every Saint believing that they are heard It is certain says one of them (e) Bellar. de sanct Beat. l. 1. c. 20. that the Saints know what we bring forth by the Affection of the Heart only (f) Pesant 1 Thom. qu. 12. Art 10. disput 7. It is of Faith saith another that the Blessed know our Prayers which we pour out to them else it were in vain to make them Now a Request does undoubtedly become Prayer or Religious Invocation when the making of it attributes any Divine Prerogative or Perfection to the Being that is called upon and therefore because Immensity of Presence is an incommunicable Perfection of God and because also Requests made to those that are out of all lines of civil Communication being made in Faith do ascribe that Power to them which is proper to God only Therefore such Requests are properly Prayer or Religious Invocation It is indeed very possible that he that prays to the B. Virgin and to the Saints may not believe that they are Omni-present but if he prayes as they pretend to do in the R. Church with Assurance that they hear him his Prayer implies it and himself by Construction of the Fact ascribes it to them For let him if he can produce any other reasonable ground of Assurance that they hear him wheresoever and whensoever he addresses to them But instead of that M. de Meaux tells us That the Church contents her self to teach with All Antiquity not all Antiquity I am sure those Prayers to be very profitable to such who make them whether it be the Saints know them by the Ministry and Communication of Angels who according to the Testimony of the Scripture know what passes amongst us Exp. p. 8. c. whether it be that God himself makes known to them our Desires by a particular Revelation or lastly whether it be that he discovers the Secret to them in his Divine Essence in which all Truth is comprized Now if his Church could have taught us upon what grounds they are assured that the Saints do hear them either this way or that way or that God has in general revealed to us that they hear or know the Prayers we make to them one way or other and therefore that it is profitable to pray to them she had not been content to teach that the Saints do know them some way or other though she knows not how or why For what foundation that they hear us can be gathered from such uncertain and loose Conjectures as these are Can any Man convince me that a thing is done by telling me that it might be done by some way or other for any thing he knows to the contrary And is this kind of Arguing a sufficient Ground to establish so solemn a part of Religion as the Invocation of Saints I know 't
is possible for God to reveal to my Friend in the East-Indies what I say here in England But am I sure that if I say to him an Ora pro nobis at this distance it reaches him forthwith It were no difficult matter if it were needful to find them trouble enough to clear these very Conjectures from Absurdity but as long as they are only Conjectures they can be no Foundation of a certain Perswasion Whereas therefore M. de Meaux says It is manifest that to say a Creature may have the knowledge of these Prayers by a Light communicated to him by God is not so elevate a Creature above his Condition I say it is as manifest that this is no ground of Certainty that the Saints hear our Prayers at all and if this be all they have to say and yet will pretend to pray to them with Faith there is but one ground left for that Faith viz. That the Saints are every where present and are therefore elevated above the Condition of Creatures Which though some of themselves do not believe yet their Assurance to be heard being altogether unreasonable without that belief their Prayers do give the Omni-presence of God to Creatures which is indeed the great reason why their Addresses to the Saints are properly Prayers This therefore I lay down and let them remove it if they can that to invocate any Creature who is out of the compass of civil Conversation i.e. with whom I cannot converse as we do with one another by speaking within the known distances of Hearing or by Writing or Messages or the like is in it self a vain and foolish thing because he is out of distance But if I pretend that it is profitable to invoke the Saints and this upon Assurance that they hear me tho I can neither tell which way in particular nor can shew in general that they do certainly hear me some way that does not infer their Omni-presence there is no remedy but my Invocation of them must by consequence confess that they are Omnipresent Let therefore those of our Communion say that by calling upon God they do acknowledge his Omni-presence as well as his other Infinite Perfections and that they are such Acknowledgments which make their Invocation of God Râ—ligious Invocation or that which is Prayer in the account of Religion And therefore that they dare not call upon the Saints departed because they being without the compass of civil Conversation or of such means of Communication as we have with one another in this World we cannot be reasonably assured that they hear us unless we will suppose them to be omni-present which as we do not believe so we dare not do any thing that looks as if we did believe it Thus have I shewn what in our Judgment makes the difference between asking fit things of our Brethren upon Earth and asking the same things of our Brethren in Heaven why one is not Prayer and the other is viz. Because the Living are within our compass and the Dead are out of it But whatever it is that makes the difference since the honest Requests we make to one another in this World are not Prayer and the Requests we make to the Saints in Heaven are Prayer it does not follow that we may request the same things of These as we may of Those For if the Argument be put into proper Expressions nothing can be more apparently inconsequent for then it would run thus Because I make my Requests known to those to whom I do not offer the Religious Worship of Prayer in so doing therefore I may represent my Desires to those too whom I cannot call upon but my desires become the Worship of Prayer or Religious Invocation And from hence it appears that tho' this Act of Religious Worship be given by those of the R. Church to the the meanest Saint yet after the most plausible Defence they make of their practice in so doing it is not to be given to the most excellent Creature and therefore not to the B. Virgin her self And by this we may judge what a Cause they have to maintain who call upon the Saints and especially upon the B. Virgin in strains so unsuitable to the condition of Creatures as they are whom they invoke when because they are but Creatures they ought not to invoke them at all since they are out of that compass of Conversation in which only we could speak to them as to Creatures with Faith that they hear us §. 4. To come to the next particular when they kneel to the Images of the B. Virgin and the Saints and prostrate and humble themselves and Pray before them we are given to understand there is no harm in all this bethey attribute no other vertue to the Images p. 9. but that of exciting the remembrances of those they represent and their intention is not so much to honor the Image p. 10. as to honor the Apostle or the Martyr in the presence of the Image As if the Image were present to see and observe the Honour that is done the Apostle or Martyr For it is no great honor that any body gets by being honored in the presence of mere Wood or Stone that can neither see nor hear This was an odd expression of M. de Meaux this of honoring the Martyr in the presence of the Image no way sutable to the design of his Exposition but fitted only to the Superstition of such People who have been made to believe by the weeping and smiling of Images and by the rowling of their Eyes and by the shaking of their Heads and Bodies c. that they are a kind of animated things But to let this pass what though M. de Meaux attributes no other virtues to Images but that of exciting Remembrance What tho he takes a very commendable Care in his Diocess to make the People stop there Does he not know by experience do not all wise Men know it and many honest Men in the Communion of that Church confess it that in those Images which the people are taught to present themselves before with all the Ceremonies of Respect and Veneration there is another fatal Virtue and that is to excite devotion toward themselves even to the demanding of Favours from them and putting Trust in them Is it not as notorious that the wretched People are guilty of worshipping the Images of the Saints no otherwise than they do the Saints themselves as that they Worship the Saints no otherwise then they Worship God himself â—ain in Civit. D. Lib. 8. c. 27. as Ludov. Vives complained If it be said that these Abuses may be provided against and Images may be still Honor'd for Honor is the Word though Religious worship is the Thing I would know why men should make Provisions in this case as if they were wiser than God who to prevent these mischiefs has forbidden Image-worship altogether If there were any such Advantages to
Style otherwise than the Antient Church did Exp. §. 3.4 When they speak of offering Sacrifice as Monsieur de Meaux does in his Exposition we are according to the use of that Phrase in their Writers to understand nothing but the pretended Sacrifice of the Mass But why must not the people be taught that the Worship of Prayers and Hymns is a Sacrifice too For this was the current Doctrine of the Primitive Church There is a good Reason for it because they do not pay this Worship to God alone as the Primitive Church did And now as for those passages concerning Oblations and Sacrifices already produced See Constit Apostol lib. 7. c. 3. and many more to the like purpose that might be produced out of the Fathers I do not know how far a willing mind might go to apply them to the Sacrifice of the Mass And when that is done it is but a little straining more and they will interpret Gregory Nazianzen to their own mind too who in his Funeral oration upon St. Basil thus speaks of him And now he is in Heaven (g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I think he offers Sacrifices for us and Prayers for the People But I am confident Nazianzen did not so much as think that Basil said mass in Heaven for him and the People To proceed Origen is as express to this purpose as his Master Clemens Alex. He saith we must pray to him (h) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orig. contr Cels lib. 8. alone that is God over all and we must pray to the word of God his only begotten and the first-born of every Creature and we must humbly beseech him as our high Priest to present our prayer for it is known to him to his Father and the Father of them that live according to the word of God This is enough for one man to say in so plain a case And yet I will add what he says about this matter from another common Argument viz. that the Divinity of Christ is clearly gathered from our making prayers to him For upon those words of the Apostle With all that call upon the Name of the Lord Jesus he saith Orig. in Decim ad Rom. lib. 8. that the Apostle pronounces Jesus Christ to be God in that his name is called upon and that to call upon the name of the Lord and to adore God is one and the same thing The Reason of this which I have ventured to offer is That Prayer does ascribe Omnipresence as well as other divine Perfections to the Being to which it is made And this is that reason which Tertullian as I think Yert de Orat cap. 1. hath expressed in these words That Faith offers its Religion to him only of whom it is confident that he sees and hears every where For by Religion he meant Prayer which is the Subject of that discourse to which these words belong Thus Novatian also Nov. de Trin. c. 14. If Christ be only a man how is he every where present to those that call upon him since this is not the nature of Man but of God to be present in all places And in the same place If Christ be only a Man why is a Man invoked as a Mediator in prayers since the Invocation of Man must be judged ineffectual for the procuring of Salvation And to name no more Athanasius frequently uses this kind of Argument For speaking of prayers made to the Son of God he says Athan. Orat. contra Arrian 2.4 the Saints do not think it just to invoke him to be their Helper and Refuge who was made or created And no man would pray to receive any thing from the Fathers and the Angels or from any of the other Creatures from whence he concludes that because the Apostle in 1 Thess 3.11 does not only pray to God the Father but also to our Lord Jesus Christ that therefore Christ is God It seems it was not then the way of Christians to joyn God and St. Michael God and the Virgin God and all the Saints in Invocations of prayers There were then no such things known as Confession to God and to St. Michael and to the Blessed Virgin and to the Saints as giving Glory to the Holy Trinity and to the Virgin as saying Jesus Mary help c. had any thing of this Nature been done in those times I doubt here had been a good Argument lost by which the Fathers proved Christ to be God Nor would Athanasius have been so meer a Child as to attaque the Arrians with an Argument to which the Doctrine and Practice of the Church had afforded so obvious and effectual an Answer To all which I shall add but that Canon of the Laodicean Synod Synod Laod. cap. 35. that Christians ought not to forsake the Church of God and depart aside and Invocate Angels Therefore if any man be found using this secret Idolatry let him be accursed because he hath forsaken our Lord Jesus Christ I make no question but if there had been occasion Saints had been put into the Canon as well as Angels But then what word could they have thought of instead of Saints to answer Corners Angulos which Crab thrust into the old Latin Translation instead of Angels Angelos is not very easy to imagine Concerning which pleasant Forgery see Bp Vshers Answer to the Jesuits Challenge p. 469. c. And now if we consider the Doctrine of these primitive Fathers concerning Prayer I suppose we shall not wonder that in those places where we might well have expected some instance of praying to Saints or some Recommendation of it if any such Practice had been amongst them that I say there is nothing at all Cypr. de Laps p. 177. no not the least intimation of it Not where St. Cyprian so vehemently admonished those that were fallen in persecution to pray to God for themselves and to intreat the Brethren to do so too Tert. de Panitentiâ c. 9. Not where Tertullian describes the Humiliations and Prostrations of the Penitents in both which places one would have expected that the Intercession of the Saints and Martyrs should have been implored Not where Justin Martyr describes the Service of the Church in her Religious Assemblies nor in any of the ancient Apologies nor in any ancient account of the Religious Worship of Christians Apost Constit. lib. 7 8. no not in the Apostolical Constitutions though a later work then it pretends to be where the order of the Churches Service is very particularly described We are not to wonder at it I say for the declared Doctrine of the Church was against it § 8. As for the Worshipping or as M. de Meaux calls it the Honouring of Images we might spare the pains of inquiring what the sence of the Ancient Church was concerning it it is so hard to believe that they should worship the Images of the Saints who did not so much as
Faithful arrived to the knowledge of the Martyrs yet he doubted not that the Martyrs prayed for the Faithful which is all that can be proved from these places But what is this to the Invocation of them which St. Austin also expresly denies in saying that they are not invocated by the Priest who Sacrifices And here we â—â—â—st remember what the Ancient Fathers meant by the Christian Sacrifice Not only the Oblation of Bread and Wine brought by all the People and presented at the Holy Table with the Prayers of the Priest nor onely the Consecration of those Elements afterwards to be the Memorials of Christs Body and Blood which they first laid before God and then distributed to the Faithful I say we must remember that they did not onely mean these visible Sacrifices but likewise all the Prayers Praises and Thanksgivings of the Church which were Vocal Sacrifices together with Contrition of Heart and all pious Affections answerable to the Outward Sacrifices by which the Faithful offer'd up * Aug. de Civ lib. 10. c. 6. themselves a Sacrifice to God This was that Reasonable Service and unbloudy Sacrifice which the Priest in behalf of all the People solemnly offered up to God So that St. Austin's meaning is this That the Faithful being assembled at the Memories of the Martyrs for Divine Service the Martyrs are not Invocated by the Priest in any part of the Administration And therefore the distinction of Sacrificial and Extrasacrisicial Prayers will not avoid this Testimony since the Prayers of the Faithful at their Religious Assemblies were all Sacrificial Prayers as being part of the Christian Sacrifice And St. Austin whose Testimony this is did in this notion of Sacrifice clearly follow the Doctrine of the more Ancient Fathers Let us observe saith he Ibid. c. 5 that where God said he would not have Sacrifice there it is shewn that he will have Sacrifice He willeth not the Sacrifice of a slain Beast but he will have the Sacrifice of a contrite Heart And afterwards he addeth these instances as the Ancients had done before him The Psalmist saith Offer unto God the sacrifice of praise and pay thy vows to the Most High and call upon me in the day of tribulation and I will deliver thee and thou shalt glâ—â—â—fie me 'T is true that he sometimes distinguisheth the visible Oblations of the Church from Prayers and Praises as where he argues Ibid. c. 19. that the visible Sacrifices are to be offered up to God onely whose visible Sacrifice we our selves are in our hearts as in vocal Prayer and Praise we pray to God and praise him onely to whom we offer the devotion of the Heart But though in that place he doth not call Prayers and Praises Sacrifices as he doth elsewhere very frequently yet even there he taketh it for granted that when the Faithful were assembled for praying to God and praising him they addressed themselves to none but to Him It is so plain even from this Father that the Invocation of Martyrs and Saints was no part of the Service of the Church that I have thought sit to insist onely upon his Testimony especially since Monsieur de Meaux has been pleased to bring in the words of the Council of Trent explaining their practise in Invocating the Saints Because saith he the Council doth almost make use of the very words of this Holy Bishop Let us first hear the words of the Council The Church does not offer Sacrifices to the Saints but to God alone who has Crowned them The Priest also does not address himself to St. Peter and St. Paul saying I offer up to you this Sacrifice but rendring thanks to God for their Victories he demands THEIR ASSISTANCE to the end that those whose Memory me celebrate upon Earth would vouchsafe to pray for us in Heaven Now let us hear the words of St. Austin in that place to which Monsieur de Meaux refers But we do not appoint Temples Priesthoods Holy Rites and Sacrifices to the Martyrs because not They but their God is our God Indeed we honour the Memories of the Martyrs as of holy men c. But who of the Faithful ever heard the Priest standing at the Altar Ibid. lib. 8. c. 27. though erected for the Honour and Worship of God over the holy Body of a Martyr to say in the Prayers I offer Sacrifice to thee O Peter or Paul or Cyprian when at their Memories 't is offered to God who made them both Men and Martyrs and associated them to the Angels in heavenly glory that by this solemnity we may give thanks to the True God for their Victories and that we by renewing in our selves the remembrance of them may be excited by imitating them to strive for such Crowns and Palms as they have obtained †Eodem invocato in Auxilium THE SAME True God BEING INVOCATED FOR OVR ASSISTANCE It seems there is almost no difference made by putting the Saints instead of God Let Monsieur de Meaux lay his hand upon his Heart and tell us honestly for once whether Eodem invocato in Auxilium do not refer to the True God spoken of before and not to the Saints And if so what there is in this passage of the Holy Bishop that makes for the Invocation of Saints And now Monsieur de Meaux may go on as long as he thinks fit to make Triumphs Pastoral Letter p. 29. upon our Acknowledgement that during the Fourth Century the Church desired the Prayers of Martyrs and honoured Reliques For he goes on in this strain in his late Pastoral Letter where he declaims so Tragically against those that if you will believe him charge Idolatry upon the Illustrious Fourth Age yea that very Age wherein the Prophecies of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ were accomplished more manifestly than ever when the Kings of the Earth till then Persecutors of the Name of Jesus became according to the Ancient Oracles his Adorers My Lord the Bishop of Meaux knew when it was convenient to use the stile of a perfect Gentleman p. 30. But since he wrote his Exposition the Case of some of his Countrey-men is something altered though the Cause be the same Now the Blasphemies of the Protestants put him into sits of Amazement p. 2â— and he cannot tell what Horrour they are worthy of But to do him right he keeps true to one old principle that will I believe be dear to him as long as he lives p. 16. Once more my Brethren let us not dispute let us not run into Controversie No by no means for it is much easier to declaim than to dispute to take things for granted than to prove them and to make general slourishes than to enter into examination of particulars What can be more easie than to exclaim in this manner The Ambroses the Augustines the Hieroms p. 30. the Gregories of Nazianzene the Basilius 's and the Chrysostomes whom all Christians have
IMPRIMATVR Car. Alston Maii 10. 1686. A DISCOURSE Concerning the Worship OF THE Blessed Uirgin AND THE SAINTS WITH An Account of the Beginnings and Rise of it amongst CHRISTIANS in Answer to M. de Meaux's Appeal to the Fourth Age in his Exposition and Pastoral Letter LONDON Printed for Tho. Bassett at the George in Fleetstreet and Tho. Newborough at the Star in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1686. OF The Worship of the B. Virgin AND The SAINTS §. 1. THE Gentlemen of the Church of Rome have been pleased lately to send Books amongst us of a very different strain On the one side Popery Misrepresented and Represented but especially Monsieur de Ms. Exposition of the Roman Doctrine On the other side our Ladies Rosary and the Contemplation of her Life and Glory c. which go up and down though not so openly as the other And we believe they have Books in readiness to explain over again their Meaning in the other Articles treated of in the Exposition at the same rate that their Books of particular Devotion to our Lady do explain the Articles of Religious Worship and Invocation of Saints In the mean time they seem to believe that there are no Articles will bear a Representation in their true Colours sooner or better than these And the truth is as Mankind has in all Ages been very prone to Superstition so to no kind of it more than to that of Worshipping Dead Men and Women which being the Practice they would reconcile us to in the first place we are concerned the more throughly to examine what they now think fit to say for it But let no man think that in this Cause we are engaged against the Saints departed because we contend with their Worshippers Let no Man take our Refusal to honor them as their Worshippers honor them for an argument that we do not honor them at all We are content to be tryed by that known Rule of St. Austin that they are to be honor'd for Imitation not to be adored for Religion We believe that the highest honor we can do them is to follow their Examples We love their Memories we celebrate Anniversary Commemorations of their Piety and Virtues especially of their Sufferings for Righteousness sake we congratulate their Victories over the World we rejoyce in their Glory and Happiness we propound their Examples to the Imitation of the Faithful exciting them to live as the Saints once lived that they at length may inherit those Promises which by their Faith and Patience in this World the Saints now inherit in the other we praise God for them as often as we meet together at the Holy Table of our Lord And when we meet to interr our Christian Brethren we pray to God to hasten his Kingdom that we with all those that are departed in the true Faith of his Holy Name may have our perfect Consummation and Bliss both in Body and Soul in his everlasting Glory Thus we honor the departed Saints remembring all along that though they are highly exalted above us who are here below imprison'd in earthly Bodies and strugling in a sinful World with Infirmities and Temptations we yet belong to the same Body of which they are Members and that they are still our Fellow-Servants We are perswaded they have not less but rather more Charity for us than they had for the Church when they lived upon the Earth but whether they know us in particular or not or in what instances they express their Charity towards us God having made no Revelations of these things we can define nothing about them and therefore we dare not give them those Honors which suppose such an Assurance of these things as God hath thought fit to deny us As to the Virgin Mary in particular we do with Men and Angels acknowledge that she was Blessed amongst Women since she brought forth the Saviour of Mankind and the Lord of Heaven and Earth since she was not the Mother only but the Virgin Mother also of our Lord and conceived him by the Power of the Holy Ghost Which Confession so honourable to her being inseparable from a right Belief concerning our Lord Jesus we do not only set it forth upon the Anniversary of the Annuntiation but frequently also in our Sermons and daily in the Creed Moreover we take these singular Graces of God towards her in Conjunction with other things of a more common quality We doubt not but she was an excellently Pious and Virtuous Person Luke 1. We see by her Behaviour when the Angel Gabriel came to her that she was not apt to be imposed upon by counterfeit Visions and Revelations nor forward to believe great things of her self nor lifted up with Pride because she was so highly Favoured but that upon this extraordinary occasion she wholly resigned her Self to the disposal of God with a Wisdom and Humility that could not but be habitual But if nothing at all had been said of her personal Qualities in the Scriptures as indeed there is but very little we might have presumed without Rashness that because God who has no less regard to a holy Mind then to a pure Body would have the Mother of our Lord to retain the Purity of a Virgin he would also chuse a most holy Virgin to be his Mother and since he was pleased to send us so Heavenly a Treasure in an Earthen Vessel he would chuse one of the greatest Honor. For which reason likewise we might have concluded without other Testimony that she became afterwards a faithful Disciple of her Son For when one in admiration of him cryed out Blessed is the Womb that bare thee and the Paps that gave thee Suck Yea rather said he Blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it without which Blessedness she that bore him in her Womb and nourished him at her Breasts would have been justly esteemed by all generations the most unhappy and miserable Creature in the World Finally from all this we cannot but conclude that she is very happy and glorious in the Kingdom of Heaven For though we have no particular Revelations concerning this to warrant any Comparisons of her state with that of Angels and Archangels yet upon general Reasons we may say with sufficient assurance That her Rewards and Glories in Heaven are exceeding great and such as hold proportion not only with her Faith and Patience for as some think she suffered Martyrdom but likewise with that Honor which God was pleased to confer upon her in this World Now if any thing remains whereby to express the Tenderness we have for the honor of the B. Virgin it is this That we should do what we can to redeem her Name from that dishonorable Imputation of affecting Glories that cannot belong to the most Excellent Creature that is but a Creature For they who by most solemn Rites of Religious Service address to her as to the Queen of Heaven and Earth would make us believe
Occasion that if that had been the only design of that Commandement it is very strange that God should note the Worshipping of the Heathen Gods with no other penalty than that which his Jealousie would inflict For to have any other Gods besides him is without all question spiritual Whoredom and had been threatned with Divorce if the Prohibition of so great a Crime had needed the of Sanction of any express Threatning But when he threatens the Worship of Images with the Effects of his Jealousie it seems plain that he means such Image-Worship as is consistent with acknowledging him to be our Only God And yet this is the least of all those Reasons by which it appears to me that he forbids in this Commandment the Worship of all Images whatsoever I deny not therefore but a man may kneel may kiss may incense may prostrate himself and pray before an Image and all this while ascribe no Divinity to it nor take it to be his God So likewise he may Pray and make Vows and offer Thanks and Prayses to the Saints and to the B. Virgin and not take them neither for his Gods But because God is the peerless Majesty of Heaven and Earth he will be served with a peerless Worship he will therefore have no such things as these done in Religion nor Creatures to have Respect shewn them that look so like to the Worship which he requires himself Why do I say so like That which they give to the B.V. and to the Saints is almost the very same But if we do such things as these it will not serve our turn to plead That we still keep the inward Adoration of Spirit and Truth intirely for him though we thus honor his Creatures with Religious Rites and Services any more than it would excuse a Woman that had given all the Favors and Liberty to another Man that could provoke her Husband's Jealousie to say though she could say it with Truth that she remembred all the while who was her Husband and whatever Liberties besides she used that she had still kept his Bed undefiled This Consideration I could not forbear to use and that in Compassion to those whose Prejudices will not let them feel the Sense of those Reasonings by which we prove the Roman Church to be guilty of downright Idolatry For if the fear of God's Jealousie would keep them from giving those Honors to the Saints which look so like Divine Honours if they are not so we should gain our end upon them though not by the force of the best arguing the Case will bear And this is our End That God may not be any more dishonour'd and their Salvation hindred by the unchristian Doctrines and Practices of this sort I have therefore now proceeded upon this Supposition that they are not guilty of perfect Idolatry in tâ—ose things which we complain of and yet shewn what urgent Cause there is upon another Account for a Reformation of them But I conclude this with professing That I have supposed them not guilty of that fearful Crime only to make way for another Argument since all Arguments are to be used in so important a Matter that have a Foundation of Truth but not in distrust of those Arguments which prove them guilty of it §. 7. The second thing I propounded was to shew the beginnings of this strange Worship amongst Christians which they offer in the Church of Rome to the B. Virgin and to the Saints For I must not forget that M. de Meaux pretends that his Church in these things teaches as the Primitive Church taught and that she does what she teaches with all Antiquity But what if nothing of all this was either Taught or done in the Church for 360 years after Christ M. de M. sayes that those of the Pretended Reformation obliged by the strength of Truth begin to acknowledge that the custom of Praying to Saints and honoring their Reliques was Established even in the fourth Age of the Church This he takes all occasions to insinuate and with these colours he serves himself to represent the Reformation as odiously as he can devise Thus he tells us in his Pastoral Letter But above all what horror are they worthy of Past l. p. 29. who cast the Accusation of Idolatry upon the whole Church and also on the Church of the first Ages Where he takes it for granted that the Honour and Innocence of the first Ages must stand or fall with the Cause of the Roman Church and so takes occasion to accuse us of a great and fearful Crime viz. That we cast the accusation of Idolatry upon the whole Church even the Church of the first Ages He had observed but just before that those who bear false and scandalous Witness against an Innocent Person are Condemned to the same punishment which the Crime of which they bear Witness did deserve had it been found true And therefore we deserve before men the Horror which is due to Idolatry and shall receive the just punishment thereof in the sight of God If this Rule be true and we must incur the Penalties of Idolatry if we falsly accuse others of it M. de Meaux ought to reflect upon himself who having accused us of falsly accusing the First Ages in this matter supports his Accusation by taking these two things for granted First that we acknowledge the Illustrious Fourth Age to have requested the Prayers of Martyrs and honored Reliques Ibid. as the pretended Catholicks have done since Secondly that the Fourth Age being granted them the first Three must be theirs in course If M. de Meaux be safe upon these Grounds we have no great cause to apprehend the Horrors and Punishments of false Accusation And if this be all he hath to say 't is but a very slender ground for an Appeal to the Primitive Church and to all Antiquity For neither have the. Reformed acknowledged heretofore Id. p. 8. nor do they now begin to acknowledge that the Customs of the Roman Church in these points were established in the Fourth Age of the Church Nor if they did acknowledge it would this Acacknowledgment give away the Primitive Church and all Antiquity in favour of Praying to Saints and worshipping of Images and Reliques unless the first three Ages were less Antient and Primitive than those that followed That which we acknowledge is not that Saint-Worship was Established in the Fourth Age but this that towards the latter end of the Fourth Age some unhappy occasions were given for the Establishing of that Worship in after Ages which we could wish had never been given and which the Great Men of those Dayes we have reason to believe would have prevented if they had been Prophets as well as holy Men and foreseen the Mischiess into which they were ripened by the Superstition of after-times I shall therefore demonstrate that 't is a vain thing for the pretended Catholicks to presume that they have the Authority of the
late If the Church had then for an hundred and fifty years together served her as the Queen of Heaven with solemn Rites of Worship That man who ventured to disparage the B. Virgin in this fashion was foolish to Admiration But if Origen knew that the Church had given her these Honors from the beginning he wise was enough to have stopped this Madman's mouth with that Argument or rather to have said nothing of him since no body could need any instruction to hold him for a ridiculous Fellow But he thought fit to instruct the people how they should answer this man and that in this manner If Mary was pronounced Blessed in those hymns that were uttered by the instinct of the holy Spirit How can any man say that our Saviour denied her Origen speaks very honorably of the B. Virgin but yet he represents her as an instance of humane Frailty and one that needed Forgiveness of sins as well as the Apostles and that because she was offended as he it seems was perswaded at the Passion of Christ What says he do we think that when the Apostles were scandalized that the Mother of our Lord was free from it And so he interprets those words A Sword shall pierce through thy own Soul also by this paraphrase The Sword of unbelief shall pierce thy own Soul and thou shalt be smitten with the edge of Doubtfulness I doubt it will not be convenient to enquire of Origen any further As for Athenagoras Minutius Felix St. Cyprian Arnobius Lactantius they have left us nothing at all concerning her unless St. Cyprian says somewhere that Christ was conceived in the Womb of a Virgin c. But if that be all I am sure he neglected some very inviting occasions of putting his People in mind of a great deal more which he ought not to have neglected if the Doctrine of the Primitive Church concerning the B. Virgin had been the same with that of the pretended Catholick Church at this day And so we are gotten out of the three first Ages But perhaps Athanasius makes amends for all that were before him in the Sermon upon the Annuntiation of the Blessed Virgin That Sermon I confess is a very surprising thing to any man that considers there was not the least preparation for the Doctrine it would pretend to establish in the foregoing Ages But then this as well as many other things that go under the name of Athanasius is none of his as Bellarmin and others of his party obliged by the Strength of Truth have actually confessed And in all probability it was written no less than 348 Years after his Death In his genuine Works there is more frequent mention of the Virgin then in the Fathers before him especially in his Orations against the Arrians which he wrote about the Year 360. But we must go further down to find where her Worship began for as yet there is no Appearance of it Hilary who wrote about the same time says nothing new in this Matter Hilar. Pictav Com. in Matth. p. 497. He does Industriously assert the Virginity of Mary which and the like things were done by some of those that went before him But of her Worship not a word To conclude the Fathers do generally speak of her without the Addition of any Title of Honor. For the most part they call her Mary sometimes the Virgin the Mother of our Lord rarely and the mother of God never I think till the Church was obliged to guard the belief of the Divine Nature of Christ by all kind of proper Expressions And even then this honourable Appellation was used not for her sake but to secure the right Faith of our Lord's Divinity especially against the Nestorian Heresie In short the Protestants do customarily mention the Virgin Mother with honorable Additions beyond what the Fathers of the Three First Ages did But we Worship her just as they did that is Rev. 19.10 not at all For my own part when I consider that she had the Glorious Priviledge to be the Mother of God I should have much ado to forbear regretting the little Regard wherewith some of the Fathers speak of her sometimes but that I find our Saviour himself in those * Luke 2.49 Ch. 11.27 28. Joh. 2.4 three Sayings concerning her which are reported in the Gospels not to Magnify her over greatly And the Truth is I should have wondred at that too had not the excess of later Devotion to her put me in mind that the H. Writers were guided by a Spirit of Prophecy and have therefore recorded nothing that Christ said to his most H. Mother but what might be of use in such times as these §. 8. Let us now see whether the Religion of Praying to Martyrs and Saints and Worshipping their Images and Reliques has the Authority of the Primitive Church and all Antiquity It may very well be presumed that it has not unless we think that the Fathers preferred the other Saints before the B. Virgin But to say the Truth tho hitherto the Virgin and the rest of the Saints were equal as to any Religious Worship neither she nor they being yet thought of for that purpose yet when Superstition at length began to creep into the Church the Martyrs got the start of the Virgin In process of time her Worship overtopped theirs but theirs began before her turn came The most holy Religion of the Gospel was delivered all at once and which is most considerable it is the Religion which God hath sealed and so it was and is all of a piece But the Corruption of that Religion coming on by degrees as contingent Occasions gave Birth and Growth to it could not be regularly contrived but would need a great deal of patching and mending to bring it to a Face of Uniformity As for Praying to Saints I know not how any Man can imagin that the Primitive Fathers taught or used it who considers in what Terms they taught that God only was to be Invocated That they counted the Worship of Invocation a better Sacrifice than those which had been offered to God as the Law of Moses required and which all acknowledge were to be offered to God only and that they argued the Divinity of Christ from hence that Prayers were to be offered to him Irenoeus tells us that the Church did nothing by Invocations of Angels or Incantations to them or any other evil Curiosity Fevardentius pretends that this excludes evil Spirits only from being invoked But let any unprejudiced Man judge by what follows Iren. lib. 2. c. 57. But says he she directs her Prayers chastly purely and manifestly to the Lord that made all things Now according to Fevardentius he should have added and to good Spirits also For 't is a vain thing to say that he intended to oppose those only that Worshipped malicious Spirits since if this had been his Intention the plain laws of Discourse had obliged him rather to omit
the Worship of God in this opposition than the Worship of good Spirits And doubtless upon this supposition he would have said that we do not use Prayers and Hymns to evil but to good Spirits I cannot but set down here the words of the Church of Smyrna in their Golden Epistle concerning the Martyrdom of Polycarp It seems the Jews had suggested that if the Christians could gain his Body they would perhaps forsake Christ and Worship him their Love and Reverence of that holy Man their Bishop was so well known Against which suggestion the Smyrnians thus declare themselves These men know not that we can neither forsake Christ who suffered for the Salvation of all that are saved the Innocent for the Guilty nor Worship any other Him truly being the Son of God we adore But the Martyrs and Disciples and Followers of the Lord we justly love for that extraordinary good mind which they have expressed toward their King and Master of whose happiness God grant that we may partake and that we may learn by their Examples This Testimony of the Church of Smyrna I rather produce in this place because in two Ancient Manuscripts cited by the most learned Arch. B. Vsher the Latin Translation of their Protestation runs thus See Act. Usser Polic. or Answ to the Jesuita Challenge Praying to Saints We Christians can never forsake Christ who vouchsafed to suffer so great things for our sins nor give away the Worship of Prayer to any other Clemens Alexandr defines Prayer by its Relation to God in which as (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bellarmin acknowledges he was followed by divers Fathers in the Fourth Century But nothing can be more plain than this Passage of his Since there is but one good God both We and Angels pray to him (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Strom. l. 7. p. 721. alone that those good things may be given us which we want and those continued which we have If half so plain a Testimony could have been produced out of the genuine Writings of these Fathers for praying to others besides God as these are for praying to God alone I fear we should have been counted very impudent in our Appeals to the Primitive Church and the best Antiquity The same Person had said not long before We do justly honor God by Prayer and with Righteousness we send up this best and most Holy Sacrifice And I find this to have been another general Notion of the Worship of Prayer amongst the Ancients that it was a Sacrifice much better than those more sensible Sacrifices that were either offered by the Gentiles or required by the Law of Moses and more pleasing to God Thus says Tertullian We sacrifice for the Health and Safety of the Emperor but we do it to our God and his God and we do it as God hath commanded with (c) Pura prece pure Prayer or purely with Prayer for so he is to be understood in as much as he opposeth the Purity of Prayer to the (d) Odoris aut sanguinis Yert ad Scap. c. 2. Sacrifices of Intense and Victims And therefore says he We pray rather for the Health of the Emperor desiring it of him who can give it This smart Writer did in his way very plainly represent our Doctrine in the fore-mentioned Saying We Sacrifice says he but to our God and his God There he represents Sacrifice as due to God only But we do it as God hath commanded with pure Prayer There he represents Prayer as a Sacrifice more Excellent than that of Odors and Blood which the Gentiles offered And can any thing be more evident than that he appropriates this Sacrifice so to God that it ought not to be given to any else Thus also he proves against the Jews That we must now sacrifice to God not earthly but spiritual Sacrifices for 't is written A contrite Heart and an humble Heart Ad. Jud. c. 5. is a Sacrifice to God and elsewhere Offer the Sacrifice of Praise and pay thy Vows to the most High And therefore a little after he affirms Christ to be the High Preist of eternal Sacrifices in Opposition to those that are abolished Nay he says that the pure Offering (e) Simplex oratio Adv. Marei c. 1. foretold in Malachy which all Nations should bring is the Simplicity of Prayer from the pure Conscience which he elsewhere describes by Blessing and Praise and Hymns and so is the same with Pure Prayer mentioned before This is enough to shew that in his days the Church would no more have offered Invocations of Prayer or Praise to any but to God then they would have offered Victims to any but to him if they had been continued in the Service of the Church And by this we may see in what sort we are to understand that Offering for the Martyrs which we read of in Tertullian and St. De Coronâ c. 3. De Exhort c. 13. Demen. Cyprian Says Tertullian We make Oblations for them that are departed in Memory of their Birth-days i. e. of the Days wherein they were crowned with Martyrdom And thus St. Cyprian writing to the Church of Carthge concerning Celerinus and making mention of his Uncles Laurentinus and Ignatius says Cypr. Epist 34. Rig. We offer Sacrifice for them you may remember as often as we celebrate the Days upon which the Martyrs suffered with an Anniversary Commemoration And thus he writes to the Clergy of Carthage concerning the Confessors that should dye in Prison Note down the days of their death Id. Epist 37. that we may Celebrate their Commemorations amongst the Memories of the Martyrs c. The meaning of which is that they gave Thanks and offered Praises to God for those holy Persons by name who had constantly suffered Death for the Faith of Christ These were the Sacrifices they offered for the Martyrs the Sacrifices of Praise not excluding what by other Authorities is evident enough the Sacrifice of Prayers for them too and for all the departed Saints that they might at length obtain the promised Resurrection I do not say that the Worship of Christians consisted only of these Sacrifices See Mr. Mede upon Mincha purum They had the Oblation of Bread and Wine besides before the Eucharist and the Representative Sacrifice of our Lord's Body and Blood in the Eucharist It is enough that the Religious Invocations of the Church were held to be the Worship of Sacrifice and that of (f) Sacrificiorum officia potiora Adv. Mass a more excellent Kind then the earthly Sacrifices of Jews and Gentiles as Tertallian calls them And let the pretended Catholicks tell us to whom the Worship of Sacrifice should be offered but to God They have I confess kept the Stile of the Antient Church and pretend to Sacrifice to God and to him only But the Change which they have made in the Doctrine and Practice of the Church hath obliged them to apply that
pray or give any Religious Worship to the Saints themselves But this practice is so far from having the Countenance of the Primitive Church and All Antiquity that in the best Ages there were men of great name in the Church that did not believe so much as the Art of Imagery and Picture lawful to be practised by a Christian Saith Clemens Alex. Protrept ad Gentes We are plainly forbidden to meddle with that cheating Art For the Prophet Moses saith Thou shalt not make the likeness of any thing either in Heaven or in Earth Tertullian hath a great deal to this purpose in his Discourse of Idolatry But those words are to my thinking very remarkable Well did the same God require the likeness of a Serpent to be made by an extraordinary Command Tert. de Idol c. 5 6. who by his Law forbad the making of any likeness If thou observest the same God thou hast his Law Make no likeness If also thou lookest to the Precept of making an Image afterward do thou also imitate Moses Make no Image whatsoever against the Law unless God also command thee in particular so to do Which words are so plain and full that they leave no room for that frivolous pretence that these Fathers intended no other Images but those of the Heathen Gods And that instance of the Brazen Serpent which was no Idol till the Jews made it one clearly shews the contrary But if it be said that the Authority of these men is to go for nothing because they were mistaken in condemning Image-Work so universally as they did I grant that their zeal against Image-Worship transported them beyond the bounds of Reason especially Tertullian who in the foresaid Book tells us Ibid. c. 2. that Artificers of Statues and Images and all carved or engraven works of this kind were brought into the World by the Devil But this I say that if Images had in those days been used in Christian Churches so much as to excite the Devotion of the Faithful much more to receive their Adoration neither would these Fathers have condemned the making of Images nor if they had would the Church have born with so great an Outrage upon their Doctrine and Practice Some one at least would have appeared in behalf of the Catholick Church as Melchior Canus has done in behalf of the Roman Church against the Eliberine Council in this matter who sticks not to say that Their Law for taking away Images Canus loc Theol. l. 5. c. 4. was not onely imprudently but impiously established The Censure which he so long after pass'd upon that Council had been fastned upon these men presently by more than one as good as Canus if Image-Worship had but been allowed then as it is now established in the Roman Communion They were not so tame as to suffer their Worship to be affronted by their own Members without taking notice of it But the truth is Eusâ—h Hist lib. 7. c. 18. Iren. l. 1. c. 24. the Monuments of the Ancient Church affords us no accounts of Images any where but either in Libraries or * Concerning the Image of the Syrophenician Woman c. see Dr. Still against T. G. p. 253. at a House-door or in the Holes of Hereticks or in the Temples of false Gods We read indeed of one Picture of Christ or some Saint which Epiphanius found in a Curtain of the Church of Anablatha but he took it down and tore it in pieces Such accounts as this are not for the credit of Image Worship which indeed came into the Church at the tail of other Corruptions And the Fathers are so unanimous and positive against it that I will shut up this matter with the testimony of a great many Fathers in one testimony viz. that of the Eliberine Council held about the beginning of the fourth Age. It is our pleasure Concil Elib Can. 36. that Pictures ought not to be in the Church lest that which is worshipped or adored should be painted upon Walls As for the Reliques of Saints and Martyrs we hear of none for the three first Ages but their Bodies nor any thing concerning them but that they were interred with all possible Respect that could be expected from Men and which is more from Christians The honour which by the custom of the World we learn is proper to the Bodies of the Dead is to give them a decent Interment This was maintained and cherished by the ancient Christians Orig. contra Cels lib. 5. Tertul. de Animâ not onely because reasonable Souls once lived in those Bodies which they committed to the ground which was an Inducement common to men but because also those Bodies and Souls were to be once again joyned at the Resurrection which was an Inducement proper to Christians It was the same kind of honour which they shewed to the Bodies of Martyrs though heightned with the expressions of a more than ordinary love Thus after the Martyrdom of St. Stephen Devout men * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 8.2 carried him out to be buried and made great lamentation over him The like account did the Smyrnians give of their disposing the Bones of Polycarp which they reckoned more valuable than precious Stones more precious than Gold M. de Meaux sure would not desire a farther progression of Love and Honour But with this degree they contented themselves for say they †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sm. Epist supr We committed them to burial where it was usual And thus Pius the first of that name Bishop of Rome Take care saith he of the Bodies of the Holy Martyrs as of Gods Members Cura quemadmodum curaverunt Curare here is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pius Epist 2. Tom. 1. Con. See Cypr. Ep. 37. Cypr. Epist 2. after that manner that the Apostles took care of Stephen ' s. Thus the Clergy of Rome in their Epistle to the Clergy of Carthage when St. Cyprian was absent To speak of a matter of very great consequence If the Bodies of Martyrs or others be not buried it is a very dangerous fault in those that are to look after this business So that in those days it should seem to be a Charge entrusted to select Persons that the Bodies of Martyrs and other Christians should be buried and this not onely at Carthage but at Rome too But why should I multiply Testimonies in so plain a case Had the Reliques of Martyrs and Saints been worshipped in those best times as they were afterward how come it to pass that in all the Monuments of those times no mention of any such thing is to be found When the Trade of Reliques began in the Church there was noise enough made of it and the best Authors acquaint us with the News But it had been no News if the Trade had been begun before Why was no such thing objected to the Christians by their watchful Enemies for three hundred
years together For we no sooner come to hear of Stories of Reliques in the Church but we find the Pagans at the heels of this Innovation and upbraiding the Christians with the superstition of it Why meet we not with some intimation of laying up Reliques in Churches under the Altar There was room enough for so considerable and necessary a circumstance and the Church of Rome makes more than a circumstance of it in that particular description of the fashion and Ornaments of the Church built by Paulinus Bishop of Tyre Euseb Hist lib. 20. c. 4. Why meet we with no Translations of Bodies from one place to another for their greater honour Perhaps we shall be told of the men from the East that came to Rome and challenged the Bodies of St. Peter and St. Paul as of right belonging to them and of their carrying them two Miles out of Town to a place called Catacumboe and all the other Adventures that Gregory tells upon this business But then there will arise a great question Greg. lib. 3. Ep. 30. Baron A. D. 221. N. 4. whether we are to believe with Gregory that they were Eastern Believers or with Baronius that they were Thievish Greeks or rather it will be no question that the whole Relation is fabulous from one end to the other In short why have we all this time no account of Miracles wrought by Reliques of carrying them about in Processions of exposing them to receive the Adorations of the People of wearing them as a special security against Spiritual and Temporal Evils or of any instance of this kind of Religion I answer It is a fond thing to imagine that the Religion of Worshipping the Reliques of the Saints should be in use amongst them who gave no Religious Worship to the Saints themselves But it is not to be wonder'd at that they who pray to the Souls of the Saints and Martyrs who are so far absent from us that they hear us not should be guilty of another weakness and Worship their Bones and other Reliques which neither hear nor see though they are present This account of the Sentiments of the Three first Ages and indeed of the better half of the Fourth we gather from the Writings of the Fathers and from the undoubted Monuments of those Times Monsieur de Meaux knew that these things had been diligently expounded by those of the Reformation and particularly by M. Daille And what does he oppose to this to save his pretences to All Antiquity harmless Says he Exp. p. 5. Without any farther examination what might be the Sentiments of the Fathers of the Three first Ages I will content my self with what M. Daille is pleased to grant who allows us so many great men who taught the Church in the Fourth Age. Now M. Daille neither made any such allowance nor had he any reason to make it But suppose he had must all that he had written concerning the sence of the Three first Ages about the Object of Worship go for nothing If this example of Writing is sit to be followed I know not why I should give my self any farther trouble and not rather conclude thus Reresius de Tradition par 3. c. That without any farther examination what may be the Sentiments of the Fathers of the following Age I shall content my self with what some great men of the Roman Church are pleased to grant and which is evidently proved against all the rest that deny it viz. That the Fathers of the Three first Ages must be allowed to us And so leave it to the World to judge who has most reason to be content § 9. But having undertaken to give some account of the beginnings of the present Superstitions of the Church of Rome in the matter of Saint-Worship and the Adoration of the Images and Reliques of the Saints And because it is impossible to do this without going beyond the first Ages till we come to the Reign of Julian I must venture beyond him and consider the state of the Church toward the latter end of the Fourth Century with respect to these questions Some of the Romanists pretend that Antiquity to be on their side which I have shewn is with us But as far as I can perceive they all pretend to be very confident they shall carry it thus high at least and Monsieur de Meaux takes it for granted that we begin to allow them those later Fathers I shall endeavour to represent the case as impartially as if I were yet to chuse my Opinion and I am very much mistaken if it will not appear in conclusion though there is a little more colour for their challenging the latter end of the Fourth Age in favour of their Doctrine and Practices in these things than for appealing to higher Antiquity that upon a true consideration of the grounds upon which they challenge these later Fathers as their own it had been more advisable for them to have come down much lower to find Presidents whereby to justifie themselves It had been a very Ancient custom of the Church for Christians to meet at the Coemiteries or Burying-places of the Martyrs and the rest of the Faithful there to celebrate Anniversary Commemorations of the Martyrs Ep. Smyr ubi suprà Thus the Church of Smyrna having intimated that they had buried the Body of St. Polycarp in the usual place they added that in that place God willing they should assemble together to celebrate the Birth-day of his Martyrdom with all the joy they could express And the reason of this Custom they express in this manner Both to Commemorate those who had already undergone the tryal of Martyrdom and to exercise and to prepare those that were to follow for the like Conflicts But they did not meet here to celebrate the Memories of the Martyrs onely but at other times also for the celebration of Divine Service Eusâ—b Hist lib. 7. c. 11. For we find that Valerian and Gallien forbad the Christians to celebrate Assemblies or to meet at those places which they called Coemiteries which passages and the like imply that it was ordinary for them to Assemble there And it is not improbable that they used those places for more privacy when there was danger of persecution and that the prohibition of Assemblies in those Coemiteries was the utmost strictness of prohibiting their Assemblies For it is plain that they had their Churches besides in Cities which they built and repaired according to their ability Id. lib. 8. c. 1. And so in that favourable time between Gallien and Dioclesian we find that they added new Churches in every City to those which they had before But whether they were wont to meet at the Coemiteries at other times besides the Anniversary days of the Martyrs for privacy or perhaps for the Commodiousness of those places when they did not consult privacy as some think or whether it was out of special respect to the
upon Angels I see little reason why he should be thought to speak in this fashion meerly because he was in comparison but a Novice in Christianity when he wrote this Book Towards the end of his life he seemed to be as fond as ever he had been of the Reliques of Martyrs and very desirous to make his Prayers over them Paulinus in vitâ Ambros Paris Amb. if Paulinus may be believed who observed that if the Holy Priest went to pray in a place at which he had never been seen to pray before this was a token that he knew by Revelation the Body of some Martyr to lie hid thereabouts So that although the Bodies he then speaks of were soon translated into the Church of the Apostles yet St. Ambrose would loose no time but went forthwith to say his Prayers to God at the places where they lay buried and probably enough to speak to them too believing that they were there near enough to observe and hear him and that they would assist him with their Prayers Thus Sozomen tells us that Theodosius going out of Constantinople in his Expedition against Eugenius and coming to the seventh mile there * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prayed to God and likewise †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sozom. lib. 7. c. 24. called to John the Baptist to help him I shall not need to insist upon the difference of Expression praying to God and calling to the Saint though several instances might be produced in favour of such an observation For here also we find that the place where the Emperour prayed to God Ibid. c. 21. and withal called upon the Baptist was no other than that Church which he had built for a Memory of St. John Baptist For it seems certain Monks of the Macedonian Heresie were said to have found the Head of the Baptist at Hierusalem which after several removes was at last brought by Theodosius to Constantinople in the Suburbs whereof he buried it and erected a stately Church over it So that here the Reliques of the Martyr were a Pledge of his Presence and Patronage and here it was that Theodosius did not onely pray to God but called to the Saint for his Assistance too Ruffin Hist lib. 2. c. 33. Ruffinus indeed tells us that he sought help by the intercession of other Saints but where was it Not here at St. John Baptist's Memory but where the Reliques of the Apostles and Martyrs were kept that is in other Memories But when the Emperour was come into Italy and had the Enemy before him in the Field though we find that he prayed yet there is not the least intimation of calling upon the Baptist or upon any other Saint there It is onely said Sozom. lib. 7. c. 24. that prostituting himself upon the ground he prayed with tears and God presently heard his Prayers But though the Victory was without all question to be ascribed to God yet Sozomen relates a strange story which he had taken as it seems upon common report how the Devil ascribed it to John the Bapist For the same day that the Battel was fought a man possessed being in the Church of St. John Baptist was heaved up very high from the ground and the Devil that was in him Ibid. railed at the Baptist and reproached him for having lost his head but yet could not forbear confessing to him in this manner Thou overcomest me and defeatest my Army I confess I am apt to suspect foul play in this prank of the Devil if it were true and do believe that God ought to have had the Glory not a whit the less for the Devils giving it to the Saint But such kind of reports were made use of to confirm People in an opinion of the presence of the Martyrs at their Memories for the Devil 's speaking to John the Baptist here was his acknowledgment of it and in the practice of making addresses to them there upon that account Nothing yet appears to the contrary but that they who thought the Martyrs heard when they were spoken to believed their presence to be limited to some certain places in the compass of which they were within hearing But I am not so vain as to undertake that there were none in those days who called upon the Martyrs in all places indifferently For while the Great men of that Age seemed to give a full scope to that strain of zeal towards the Martyrs which was now going forward it is to be feared rather though no such thing appears that some of the people made no difference between calling upon their Martyrs at their Memories or any where else And so it certainly was when one of those Sermons was written that are safely attributed to St. Serm. de Fest Nazarii Celsi Tom 4. Ambrose But 't is enough for my present purpose that the custom of calling upon the Martyrs at their respective Memories was as yet very notorious And this indeed was the ground of that Scoff of Vigilantius for which St. Hierom. Adv. Vigil ubi supra Hierom chastises him so severely What says he are the Souls of the Martyrs therefore so fond of their own Ashes do they hover about them and are always present with them lest perhaps if any one comes to pray they should be absent and incapable of hearing him To the matter of which Question St. Hierom was almost silent but he lashes him for abusing and laughing at the Reliques of the Martyrs The truth is Vigilantius had hit that Popular Opinion that the Martyrs were very much present with their Reliques and consequently that the best way to be sure of them was to go to the Churches where their Reliques were unless which happened very seldom they should discover a particular affection to some other place as St. Hilarion did to the Garden of Cyprus after his Reliques were stoln out of it Now therefore as the first Addresses that were made to the Martyrs had not the nature of Prayer or Religious Invocation in any other respect so neither in this that they ascribed Omnipresence to the Saints or Martyrs For not onely the Belief of that Age but the Practice of it too in seeking the Intercession of the Saints limited their presence to some determinate places and generally to their respective Memories They that called upon the Saints at all did not indifferently call upon them in any place but if we may gather the general practice from such particular instances as we have they invocated them in some certain place onely where they were thought to be within hearing Nor can I find that they thought it reasonable to speak so much as to one Saint at the Memory of another but rather to every Saint a◠his own Which makes the Addresses of those times to the Martyrs very different from the Invocation of Saints in the Church of Rome which hath let her Children loose to call upon every Saint in every place as
occasion requires and has furnished them with Litanies of Supplication to all the Saints to be used in all places of the World He that cannot see a wide difference between these two things can see nothing The first practice of all setting aside the ill consequences of it was to say the worst of it but a harmless Superstition that is when as yet the Reliques of the Martyrs were intire and there was but one Memory to one The next step indeed was something dangerous which began also in this Age and that was allowing some of them several Memories in distant places at every one of which I believe they were spoken to by some or other though it was yet pretty well that they confined them all within some bounds But the last Practice is an intolerable Affront to the Divine Majesty because it does in effect ascribe Omnipresence to a Creature The progress of the mischief from so small a beginning to so strange a conclusion was plainly this By dispersing the Reliques of the same Martyrs into two or more and at length into many places their Memories were by degrees strangely multiplied and that to speak the Truth Theod. de Cur. Graec. Affl. l. 8. de Mart. not inconsiderably in the next Age as appears by Theodoret and so by degrees they were allowed a greater and by the help of new Reliques when the old ones would bear dividing no longer still a greater compass of presence till at last Superstition and worldly Policy together would not allow any bounds at all to be set to their presence but would have them called upon no less than God in all places whatsoever This account of the latter Practices of the fourth Age in this matter and of the grounds of their Practice may perhaps deserve to be added to a great many others whereby the difference of the Addresses to the Martyrs in that Age from the Roman Invocation of Saints has been shewn I shall say no more of it than that it may appear fair and reasonable to any man that shall take the pains to compare one thing with another At least it deserves some consideration because if the Addresses that were made in that Age to the Martyrs were limited to some certain places it will destroy an Appeal to that Age for an Invocation which is unlimited and ascribes Omnipresence to the Saints And therefore if in assigning this difference I have proceeded upon a mistake of the Practice of that Age the Gentlemen of the Church of Rome are concerned to shew it And when they do it will be my part to shew that I am not fond of a Notion but can with more ease reject it when it appears to be false than I entertained it while it seemed to be true But then 2. As the Addresses of the Fourth Age to the Saints were not properly Religious Invocations so neither were they established in the Church There was no publick Rule or Order for them but they were wholly the effects of a private and voluntary Zeal encouraged by some of the Guides of the Church and perhaps connived at by all They were I say the actions of so many single Christians in behalf of themselves or their near Relations but no part of the established Service of the Church The Liturgies were every where still the same and none but God was called upon in the Service performed at the Religious Assemblies of the Church If the pretended Catholicks could shew a Change in the Service of the Church about this time favouring the Invocation of Saints that indeed were something But then they must not refer us to the shameful Interpolations of St. Chrysostom's and other ancient Liturgies It were an easie matter to be very large upon this Head but for a reason I shall mention presently we will for the present go no farther than to St. Austin For if his Authority be of any weight with them they will see that whatever was done in the way of private Worship by single Persons there was no change of the Service of the Church in this respect but that God onely was invocated in the stated Assemblies of the Faithful Let us therefore hear what St. Austin says The Gentiles saith he have built Temples raised Altars and ordained Priests De Civit. Dei lib. 22. c. 10. and offered Sacrifices to their Gods But we do not erect Temples to our Martyrs as if they were Gods but Memories as to dead men whose Spirits live with God Nor do we erect Altars upon which to sacrifice to Martyrs but to one God onely do we offer the God of Martyrs and our God at which Sacrifice as men of God who in confessing him have overcome the World they are named in their place and order but they are not invocated by the Priest who sacrifices St. Austin plainly speaks of the publick Service of the Church at the Assemblies of the Faithful in which if we will take his word no Addresses were made but to God onely And he expresly says that the Priest who administred the Service did not invocate the Martyrs but named them in order as men that had overcome the World that is gave Thanks and Prayers to God for them And here I am much mistaken or else there is an observable difference intimated between the voluntary Addresses of single Persons to the Martyrs at their Memories and between the mention that was made of the Martyrs when the Faithful assembled for the ordinary Service of God at the same Memories For when in voluntary and private Devotion the Saints were spoken to it was still at their respective Memories but in the Assemblies of the Church for Divine Service they were indifferently mentioned in their place and order at all the Memories of the Martyrs but not invocated But that which I chiefly observe is this That neither was the Martyr whose Memory was the place of God's publick Service invocated in the Prayers of the Church so that even the Addresses of that Age to a Martyr at his own Memory were not established by the Order and Service of the Church but left to the voluntary Zeal of single Persons And therefore those Passages of this Father referred to by M. de Meaux make nothing for Invocation of Saints St. Austin it seems though it was a singular Opinion of his thought it an * De Verb. Apost Serm. 17. injury to a Martyr to pray for him by whose Prayers we our selves are to be commended and therefore the Martyrs were not mentioned in that place of the Service where other dead Persons were commemorated viz. those for whom Prayer was made And says he †Tractat. in Joh. 84. At the Holy Table we do not so commemorate them as we do others that rest in peace viz. as those for whom we pray but rather as those that pray for us that we may tread in their steps Now though St. Austin was one of those that doubted whether the Petitions of the