Clergy in their Synod at Paris and by almost all the rest of the Bishops of the Western Church against your pretended General Council of Nice wherein this Doctrine was first establish'd The Definitions of this Council being sent to the Emperour out of the East he transmitted a Copy of them into England Hereupon Alcuinus who had formerly been his School-master wrote an Answer to him in the Name of the Clergy of England to declare their dislike of this Doctrine and the account of which our ancient Histories give us in these words In the Year from the Incarnation of our Lord 792 Charles King of France sent to Britain a Synode Booke which was directed unto him from Constantinople Hoveden Annal ad Ann. 792. Simeon Dunelm Hist p. 111. Mat. West ad An. 793. Spelm. Conc. Tom. 1. p. 306. in the which Book alas many things unconvenient and contrarye to the true Fayth were found in especial that it was establyshed with a whole consent almost of all the Learned of the East no less than of three hundredth Bishops or more that Men ought to worship Images the whiche the Churche of God DOTH VTTERLYE ABHORRE Against the whiche Alcuine wrote an Epistle wonderouslye proved by the Authoritye of Holy Scripture and brought that Epistle with the same Booke and Names of our Byshops and Princes to the King of France And thus neither was this Doctrine nor Practice propagated down from Austin to King Henry the Eighth but on the contrary unknown to Austin and rejected as you see by the Church of England almost 200 Years after his first Conversion of it 35. Ibid. And this may suffice to shew both your Skill in Church-History and the little pretence you have for that vain and most false Assertion that your Religion was taught and practised by S. Austin and propagated down even to King Henry the Eighth 's time whereas indeed it is made up of such Corruptions as crept into it long after his Decease Your next business is to rail at King Henry the Eighth which you do very heartily See Thuanus tho let me tell you that better Men than you are even of your own Commuion and who were much more acquainted with the Affairs of those Times speak better things of him And had he been as bad as you are able to represent him yet I could send you to some of the Heads of your Church who have as far excell'd him in Wickedness as ever any of your Canonists have pretended they did in Authority But the Merits of Princes as well as ordinary Persons are measured by some Men not according to their real worth but as they have served their Interests or opposed the Usurpations And tho King Henry the Eighth be now such a Monster yet had he not thrown off the Pope's Supremacy you would have made no difficulty to have forgiven him all his other Sins whilst he lived and would have found out somewhat to justify his Memory now he is dead We know how one of the best Popes of this last thousand Years called Heaven and Earth to celebrate the Praises of a Traytor that had murder'd his Master and possess'd himself of his Empire And Cromwell himself tho a Usurper and Heretick yet wanted not his Panegyrists among those pretenders to Loyalty who now cannot afford a good word to the Honour of a Prince from whose Royal Line their present Sovereign at this day derives his Right to the Crown he wears 36. But however were the Vices of that Prince otherwise never so detestable yet I shall leave it to the World to judg who proceeded with the most Care and Sincerity in the Point you insist upon of his Divorce with Q. Catherine the King who consulted almost all the Learned Men as well as the most famous Vniversities of Europe and then acted according to their Determination Or the Pope who by his notorious jugling with him in the whole process of that Affair shew'd that he resolved to decide it not by any Laws of God or the Church but meerly as his greater Interests with the Emperor or the King should move him to do 37. Ibid. The next step you make is from King Henry to his Son King Edward the Sixth And here you tell us Reply p. 8. That as Schism is commonly follow'd with Heresy so now the Protector who was tainted with Zuinglianism a Reform from Luther endeavour'd to set it up here in England In which you again discover your Zeal against us but not according to Vnderstanding There is hardly any one that knows any thing of the beginning of this Reformation but will be able to tell you that the chief Instrument of it was one whom you have not once mentioned Arch-bishop Cranmer I will not deny but that the Protector concur'd with him in his design but whether he was Zuinglian or what else neither you nor I can tell Dr. Heylin See your Hist Coll. p. 103. who on this occasion is usually your Oracle seems rather to think he was a Lutheran tho easie to be moulded into any form But this I know that had you been so well vers'd in these things Hosp Hist Sacram par 2. p. 33. Lampadius par 3. p. 439. Scultetus Annal. ad An. 1616. as one who pretends to write Historical Remarks ought to be you would have spared that idle Reflection of Zuinglius's being a Reform from Luther it being evident to those who understand his History that neither himself nor the Cantons in which he preach'd were ever Lutherans But on the contrary whereas Luther appear'd but in the Year 1517 Zuinglius began to preach against the Corruptions of the Church of Rome some Years before when the very Name of Luther was not yet heard of And had several Conferences with Cardinal Matthews then in Switzerland to this purpose before ever the other appear'd in publick against them So unfortunate a thing is it for Men to pretend to be witty upon others without considering their own blind side But you go on 38. Ad pag. 9. Reply And from that time the Catholick Doctrine which had been taught by our first Apostles and propagated till then began to be rejected and accused as Erroneons Superstitious and Idolatrous and they who profess'd it persecuted Answ This is still of the same kind as false as it is malicious How false it is that the Doctrine you now profess was either planted here by our first Apostles or propagated till this time in the Church of England I have already shewn And for the Persecution you speak of methinks you should have been asham'd to mention that word being to name Q. Mary's Reign in the very next Line But what at last did this Persecution amount to Were any Roman Catholicks banish'd or put to death for their Religion Were the Laws turn'd against them or any Dragoons sent to convert them No Bonner and Fisher and two others Heath Bishop of Worcester and Day Bishop of Chichester
confess'd by the principal Authors of the Church of Rome it self n. 97. IIdly Q. How this may be done by them Two ways proposed from what has before been said viz. 1st By worshipping the true God after an Idolatrous manner n. 101. 2dly By giving Divine Worship to any other besides Him n. 103. II. POINT That the Church of Rome in the Worship of Images is truly and properly guilty of IDOLATRY This shewn according to the VINDICATOR's desire in two different respects I st With reference to those who hold that Images are to be worshipped with the same Worship as the things which they represent n. 108. IIdly As it concerns their Opinions who denying this yet allow an inferiour Honour to them n. 113. Of RELIQUES Two things proposed to be proved in answer to the VINDICATOR's Exceptions I st That those of the Church of Rome do truly and properly worship the RELIQUES of their Saints For their Expressions it is undeniable n. 121. That their Practice is agreeable to their Words shewn 1st In the instance of that Worship which they give to the Wood of the true Cross n. 122. 2dly To all the other RELIQUES that have ever touch'd our Saviour Christ n. 124. 3dly From their allow'd practice of swearing by them n. 125. A famous Story of S. GURIA for the illustrating of this matter n. 126. 4thly From their other Practices especially their carrying of them in Procession an instance whereof is given from the Roman Pontifical n. 127 c. IIdly That they do seek to them for Help and Assistance My Interpretation of the Council of Trent in reference to this Point made good against the new Pretences of the VINDICATOR n. 129. The thing it self justified from the Publick Prayers of that Church n. 130. And from a memorable Instance of a Prince of the Family of the Dukes of Radzevil with which the whole is concluded ERRATA PAge 3. of the Contents for Fourth Article read Third Article P. 6. num 9. line 4. r. our Schism P. 8. n. 14. l. 5. r. Err. P. 11. n. 21. l. 3. uncertain r. unsincere P. 18. n. 35. l. 17. r. Their Vsurpations P. 25. l. 9. r. were now P. 32. n. 57. l. 7. del after all P. 48. n. 9. l. 6. Images r. Angels P. 87. l. 1. r. recising P. 114. Marg. Expos r. Def. of the Expos P. 120. Marg. r. lib. Carol. P. 127. Marg. r. Reg. Moral 80. P. 133. l. 27. For and I del and. P. 137. n. 154. l. 5. r. Moliri Pervicaciâ P. 138. l. 4. r. Curarum P. 167. l. ult for V. r. VIth Cent. P. 187. n. 119. l. 3. r. upon a verbal P. 190. n. 124. l. 15. Cloth with which P. 194. l. 25. and only del and. P. 196. n. 132. l. 1. r. Radzevil The Pages are interrupted in two places pag. 60. and p. 160. AN ANSWER TO THE PREFACE THE Design of your Preface seems reducible to these two Points viz. I. Of the State of the Controversy between the Papists and Protestants in general And II. Of the Disputes that have heretofore been and are at this day managed against you by Vs of this Church in particular 2. Ad pag. 1. The former of these you introduce with a short harangue of the Mischief which Heresie and Schism bring along with them not only to the individual Persons that are guilty of them but also to the Nations in which they are propagated You represent to us the miserable Broils and other worse Consequences that have attended these Controversies of Religion in this and the last Age And from thence you conclude how much they are to be commended who labour to establish Truth and Vnity and those to be condemned who seek all means possible to obscure the one and obstruct the other 3. Answ To all which I have only this to reply that we need no Arguments to convince us of these things There are none more sensible of the Mischiefs of Schism and Heresie than we are or that do more truly lament the Divisions that are in the Church or would more heartily contribute what in us lies to the closing of them But then as we have good cause to believe both from the Authority of Holy Scripture and from the Nature of Mankind that whilst there is a Devil in Hell and Men of Interest and Designs upon Earth there shall also be Heresies 1 Cor. xi 19. that they who are approved may be made manifest So we cannot but complain that those should be the most forward to charge us both with the Guilt and Mischief of them at whose doors the Crime and therefore the Evil Consequences of it will one day be found to lie The former of these it will be the business of the following Discourse to make good And for the latter whosoever shall impartially consider the Origen of those Broils with which the World has you say been agitated in this and the last Age upon the account of Religion not to mention those other Mischiefs of Treasons Plots Massacres Persecutions and the like will soon be convinced who they are that have cause to complain of these Evils For what you add 4. Ibid. That they who will but impartially consider matters will find that Catholicks have upon all occasions sought the most Advantageous Means to procure this Christian Peace tho to their grief they have still been hindred from effecting this Good Work. Answ I do not well know what you design by it If by the most Advantageous Means you understand those Means of Knowledg which God has given us whereby to come to discern the Truth of Religion such as 1. A diligent reading of the Holy Scriptures the using of all imaginable Assistances for the understanding the sense of them by studying the Original Languages in which they were written searching of Antiquity collating parallel places and the like 2. The divesting of our selves of our Prejudices and forming in our Minds an impartial desire to find out the Truth with an honest readiness to embrace it on what side soever it lies And lastly to all this add our earnest Prayer to God for his Grace to bless and prosper our Endeavours these I confess are the best Means to discover Christian Truth and to exhort all others to the use of them the most advantageous way to promote it But then I cannot imagine why you should seem to appropriate these Means to your selves as if you only sought Truth and Peace by them seeing it cannot be deny'd but that We have employ'd all these with as great diligence as you can pretend to have done it But now some other Means indeed there are which you have pursu'd and which it may be you understand by this Expression and then We neither deny your Assertion nor envy you the Glory of being singular in your Endeavours of procuring Peace by them Such are 1. The Means of Force and Violence your Holy Leagues and private Treacheries your Inquisitions
fifty Years after that Austin the Monk came into England 2dly you say that Austin found only two Customs among the Christians here that he could not tollerate 'T is true indeed upon the second meeting that he had with the Brittish Bishops Bede Lib. 2. c. 2. he told them That though in many things they were contrary to the custom of his Church yet if in those two mentioned they would obey him and joyn with him in preaching the Gospel to the Saxons he would bear with them in the rest But did they therefore acknowledg his Authority in complying with his Desires so you would make us believe They were Obstinate say you TILL God was pleased to testify his Mission and the Authority he came with by the Authentick Seal of Miracles As for his Miracles we have no great Opinion of their Authority since we read in the passage to which I just now referr'd you that Antichrist himself shall come with this Attestation Gal. 1.9 It is the Doctrine that must give credit to the Miracles not these to the Doctrine Should an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel than that which we have received St. Paul has commanded us for all the Wonder to bid him be Anathema But I return to the History in which you so notoriously prevaricate that I cannot imagine how one that pretends in this inquisitive Age to deliver the Antiquities of his own Country durst betray himself so notoriously ignorant of it See Sir Bede Loc. cit the words of your own Author Bede expresly contrary to your Allegation But they answer'd that they would do nothing of all this nor receive him for an Arch-Bishop Insomuch that Austin came to high words with them threatning them with that Destruction which they afterwards to their cost met with from his new Saxon Converts And your illustrious Annalist Card. Baron Annal. Tom. 8. An. 604. Baronius cannot forbear making some severe Reflections upon the State of our Island at that Time as if God had therefore given it into the hands of the Barbarians because of the refractory and schismatical Minds of these Bishops 23. Ibid. Reply Your Adversaries you say acknowledg that when St. Austin came into England he taught most if not all the same Doctrines the Roman Catholick Church now teaches c. 24. Answ If S. Austin as you call him taught the same Doctrine which Pope Gregory the Great taught who sent him hither and whose Disciple we are told he was I must then put you in Mind that a very Learned Man has lately shew'd you and I may reasonably presume you could not but know it that he did not teach most much less all the Doctrines which you now teach No Sir the Mystery of Iniquity was not yet come to Perfection and tho your Church had even then in many things declined from its first Faith yet was it much more pure than now it is Protestants Apology p. 57 c. 2d Edit Had you when you took this Pretence from your Friend Mr. Brerely look'd into the Answer that was at large made to it I am perswaded you would have been asham'd to have again advanced so false and trifling an Objection Look Sir I beseech you into the Protestants Appeal Prot. Appeal lib. 1. cap. 2. or if that be too much for one of your Employments look into the Treatise to which I refer you There you will find 1. Vind. of the Answ of some late Papers p. 72 c. That the Scripture was yet received as a perfect Rule of Faith. 2. The Books of the Maccabees which you now put into your Canon rejected then as Apochryphal 3. That Good Works were not yet esteem'd meritorious Nor 4. Auricular Confession a Sacrament That 5. Solitary Masses were disallow'd by him And 6. Transubstantiation yet unborn That 7. The Sacrament of the Eucharist was hitherto administred in both kinds And 8. Purgatory it self not brought either to certainty or to perfection That by consequence 9. Masses for the Dead were not intended to deliver Souls from those Torments Nor 10. Images allow'd for any other purpose than for Ornament and Instruction 11. That the Sacrament of Extreme Vnction was yet unform'd and even 12. The Pope's Supremacy so far from being then establish'd as it now is that Pope Gregory thought it to be the fore-running of Antichrist for one Bishop to set himself above all the rest These are the Instances in which you have been shewn the vast difference there is between Pope Gregory's Doctrine and that of the Council of Trent and which may serve for a Specimen to satisfie the World with what Truth you pretend that we acknowledg that S. Austin when he came into England taught most if not all the same Doctrines that you now teach And this may also suffice for your next Argument founded upon it viz. 25. Add pag. 7 8. Reply That these Doctrines and Practices were either then taught and exercised by the British Christians also or they were not If they were not taught by them certainly we should not have found them so easily submitting to them If they were taught by the British Bishops also then they were of a longer standing than S. Austin's time and we must either grant they were introduced by the first Preachers of the Gospel here or evidently shew some other time before St. Austin when this Church embraced them 26. Answ A Dilemma is a terrible thing with Sense and Truth but without them 't is a ridiculous one as I take this to be For 1. It is evident from what I have before said that Austin did not teach the same Doctrines nor establish the same Practices that you do now teach and establish but did indeed in most of your Corruptions differ from you So that like the unwise Builder you have erected a stately Fabrick and founded it upon the Sand. 2. Had he been as very a Romish Missionary as your self yet is your Argument still inconclusive For whereas you suppose the Brittish Bishops submitted to him they were on the contrary so far from either obeying his Authority or following his Prescriptions that as I have shewn you they utterly rejected both and I will presently add that for above a hundred Years after his Death they utterly refused so much as to communicate with his Proselytes nor esteem'd them any more than Pagans So that I may now turn your own Argument upon you that seeing they had such an Abhorrence for Austin and his Followers that they look'd upon them no better than Heathens it very probably was because they neither approved what he taught nor saw any cause to submit to that Authority to which he pretended You see Sir what an admirable Argument you here flourish with and how little cause we have to expect any great Sincerity from you in other matters when in the very History of your own Country you so wretchedly prevaricate and against the express Authority
somewhat more than to pray to those Saints to pray for Him. If you think otherwise let us see your Paraphrase and then we shall be able the better to judge of it To conclude Let any Man but read over the late Books of Father Crasset and Dr. J. C. and then I will leave Him to believe if He can that all you mean in your Invocation of Saints is only to desire them to pray for you 46. And this may suffice to your first Pretence of the Interpretation you would put upon these Addresses As for the Authority you would be thought to have from Holy Scripture for them it is so very trifling as not to deserve a Consideration For who would not laugh at that Man that should seriously argue after this manner 1. When the Children of Israel were under Oppression Judges iii. 9. God raised up a Deliverer or Saviour for them who delivered them Therefore it is lawful to pray to Saints as our Saviours in Heaven Again 2. Acts vii 35. Galat. iii. 19. St. Stephen calls Moses a Ruler and a Deliverer of the Children of Israel and St. Paul a Mediator because at the delivery of the Law God sent it by his Hands to them Therefore we may now give the Titles of Mediators and Redeemers to the Saints departed with reference to our Spiritual and Eternal Concerns tho they neither are nor have been either Redeemers or Mediators to us 3. St. Paul tells Timothy 1 Tim. iv 16. That if he discharged the part of a faithful Pastor as He exhorted him to do He should be a blessed Instrument of Salvation both to Himself and Others Therefore we may now pray to Timothy as our Saviour in Heaven 47. Are not these Sir weighty Arguments And were you not resolved utterly to confound us when you alledged such Proof out of Holy Scripture as this But you have one Passage at least that will do our Work. Grace and Peace are the proper Gifts of God Revel 1.4 But this St. John wishes to the Seven Churches of Asia not only from God but also from the Seven Spirits which are before the Throne Therefore We may warrantably pray to the Blessed Virgin Let the Virgin Mary and Her Son bless us A notable Proof this and almost as terrible as that which follows The Holy Scripture says of Princes That they are Gods therefore we may pray to the Saints as Gods too But we will consider every part of it Grace and Peace are the proper Gifts of God. This is confess'd What will you infer from thence But these St. John wishes not only from God but also from the Seven Spirits I answer 1. If your own Gloss be good Gloss Ord. in loc Rhemists Test p. 700. those Seven Spirits are set to signifie the Seven fold Gifts of the Holy Ghost and your own Rhemists in their Annotations from whence I am apt to believe you borrow'd this Argument confess it may be well understood so But 2. Not to deal too strictly with you Let us allow these Seven Spirits to signifie Created Angels What will be the Consequence St. John wisheth all Grace and Peace to the Churches of Asia from God by the ministration of his Holy Angels whose Ministry He employs in dispensing His Graces and Blessings for the Preservation of His Church Therefore we may wish to the Church now Grace and Peace from Christ and the Blessed Virgin who is neither Angel nor Ministring Spirit nor that we know of any way employ'd by God for the Service of it Nay but this will not do yet We must carry it yet further St. John wishes all Peace and Happiness from God and his Holy Angels to the Church Therefore We may not only Wish the like from God by their Ministration but may solemnly pray to Saints and Angels themselves together with God for Grace and Peace And if this be your way of Arguing from Holy Scripture 't is well you have Infallibility of your Side for I am confident otherwise you would never persuade any Man by way of reasoning to submit to your Conclusions 48. But the Representer has yet a Passage to justifie the utmost Extravagance of former Times and prove even that Prayer which Bellarmine was fain to deny they ever used Of the Virgins commanding our Saviour by the Right which as a Mother she had over Him to be most agreeable to Holy Writ For does not the Scripture say of Joshua c. x. 14. That He spoke to the Sun and it stood still the Lord OBEYING the Voice of a Man This is an Argument that must be carefully look'd to or like Wit that depends upon a turn of Expression 't will be utterly lost And therefore in the Vulgar Latin and Doway Bibles this is a good Proof but in our own 't is none at all For as we render it it would be a most wild Inference thus to conclude Joshua pray'd unto God that the Sun might stand still and God hearkned unto his voice and answered his Request Therefore we may pray to the Blessed Virgin by the Right of a Mother to command her Son. But be it as he desires God obey'd the voice of Joshua i. e. as the Chaldee Paraphrast has it He accepted his Prayer as the Doway Bible it self expounds it Doway Bible in loc p. 488. He condescended to work so great a Miracle at the Instance of his Servant How will it even thence follow that we may desire the Blessed Virgin to command our Saviour by the Right of a Mother over him But such Twigs as these must be laid hold on when Men are resolv'd to keep to their Conclusion tho at the same time they have not so much as the shadow of a Proof to support it SECT II. After what manner it is that the Church of Rome prays to God through the Merits of Her Saints Reply sect xviii p. 23 24. This is the next Point to be considered by us and thus you establish it 49. Reply p. 23. You tell us that the Word Merit is Equivocal and misapplied by Me That the Truth of your Doctrine is I. To reduce all your Prayers to this Form That God would be pleased not to regard your Unworthiness but the Merits of our Redeemer ever supposed respect the Merits of his Saints also and for their sakes hear your Prayers and accept your Sacrifices II. That this is plainly shewn in your solemn concluding of All your Addresses in this manner Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Whereby it appears that you mean no more than to beg of God Almighty that he would vouchsafe to call to mind the glorious Actions and Sufferings of his Saints performed in and by his Grace and upon these Accounts accept you III. And finally That for this you have the Authority of the Holy Scripture it self 50. Answ For Answer to which Discourse I must first desire you to come a little out of the Clouds and not play with us
of this Argument that since the prevalency of this praying to Saints in the Church of Rome your publick rituals have had a notable change Those very Saints which in your ancient Missals you pray'd for being now a la Mode pray'd to Thus upon IV. Kalends of July in the Sacramentary of Pope Gregory I. Sacrament Greg. p. 112. above 600 years after Christ we find this Prayer made in behalf of S. Leo one of your Popes Grant O Lord that this Oblation may be profitable to the Soul of thy Servant Leo. But in the present Roman Missal the Collect is changed Missale Rom. pag. 6 12. and the Address made by the Intercession of the Saint now that was formerly made by way of Intercession for Him. Grant to us O Lord that by the Intercession of Blessed Leo this Offering may be profitable to US And of this change Decret lib. 3. tit 41. p. 1373 1373. Pope Innocent the 3d. gives this honest account Viz. That the Authority of Holy Scripture says that he ' injures a Martyr that prays for a Martyr wherein yet his Infallibility mislead him it being S. Austin and not the Scripture that said so ' and they do not want our Prayers but we theirs Which the Gloss thus more fully expresses It was changed viz. this prayer for Pope Leo because anciently they pray'd FOR Him but now TO Him. And from whence therefore we may warrantably infer that in those first Ages praying TO Saints was not establish'd seeing it was then the general Custom to pray FOR them 112. The truth is the whole face of the Ancient Church seems clearly opposite to the present practise Some doubted whether the holy Saints departed do at all concern themselves for us or conduce any thing to our Salvation So Origen And these to be sure never prayed to them Others made open opposition to such service So the Council of Laodicea S. Epiphanius Vigilantius and others before mention'd Now you Canonize Saints and esteem it necessary so to do to prevent mens praying to those in Heaven who are it may be at this time tormenting in Hell. But in those first Ages we find none of these Apotheoses De beatit SS lib. 1. C. 8. and Bellarmine himself could not find out any instance of any Saint that was Canonized before the VIIIth Century If we go into your Churches we find them filled with Altars and Chappels Images and Reliques of the Saints Candles are lighted up before them Incense is burned to their Honour But in those Primitive Ages not the least shadow is to be met with of any such Superstitions Your Books of Devotion are now filled with little else than advises how to pray to the Blessed Virgin to list your selves into her service to vow your selves to her Worship her Psalter and Rosary and Salutation is in every part of your performances Even the Catechism of the Council of Trent it self the most Cautious Book that has been set forth for some Ages in your Church having taught you first how to pray to God fails not to instruct you that you must in the next place have recourse to the Saints and make Prayers to them How comes it to pass if this were the primitive practise too that none of those Holy Fathers in any of their practical discourses have ever treated of these things Nay on the contrary they every where thunder in our Ears that Protestant Heretical Maxim that we must pray to GOD ONLY and that we ought not to address our selves to any other 123. In all your Sermons you call upon the Blessed Virgin for assistance In the Ends of your Books her Name seldom fails of standing in the same return of praise in which God and our Saviour are Glorified Your publick service and private prayers are all over-run with this superstition But is there any thing of this in the Primitive Rituals Look I beseech you into the account that has been given us of the publick service of the Ancient Church by Justin Martyr Tertullian nay by the Clementine Constitutions themselves Consult the Relation which Pliny made to the Emperour Trajan of their Manners Try those famous Liturgies of the Church within the first 100 years Reply p. 19. which no body has the happiness to be acquainted with but your self see if you can pick us up but one instance but some shadow of an instance to flourish with on this occasion 124. What are the Lives of your Saints but continued Histories of their Devotion to the Blessed Virgin and the Saints and the favours which upon that account they received from them But in the ancient Compilers of such kind of Discourses we find only dry accounts of their Piety towards God of their Zeal and Constancy in the Faith of their patience in suffering any thing rather than submit to such superstitious practises as these which the Heathens indeed would have drawn them to but which the Church utterly abhorred But for their knight errantry in Honour of the Blessed Virgin for watching whole Nights before her Images or in her Chappels for turning Vagabonds in order to the visiting her Chamber at Loretto or fetching a Feather from Compostella of this New Method of Piety there are not the least traces 125. I might run out these remarks into almost infinite Examples were they not things as well known as your contrary superstition is notorious But I shall reserve these and some other Observations of the like kind till you think fit to call me to account for them In the mean time I conclude from this short specimen I have here given that certainly the face of the Church must be very much changed as to these things Or otherwise that so great a difference could not possibly be found in the Lives the Writings the Actions the Customs the Opinions the Expressions Prayers Practises of those holy Fathers from what we see and lament in your Church at this day I go on thirdly to shew III. The Unreasonableness of this Service 126. And for that I shall offer only this one plain Argument If the Saints cannot ordinarily hear your prayers nor are able to attend distinctly to those Addresses that are made to them If those whom you Canonize are not indeed such as you suppose but many at this day tormented in Hell upon whom you call for assistance in Heaven If some of those to whom you pray never had any being but either in the Heralds Office or in the fruitful Womb of a Legendaries Brain Then it cannot be doubted but that to pray to the Saints must be the most unreasonable Devotion in the World you speak to the Wind and call upon them to as little purpose as if you should here in England make an Address to a Man in China or Tartary and you might as well have continued the Deities as you do the practise of the ancient Heathens in this service It being altogether as wise a Devotion to pray
you in a double Capacity both as an Image and as a Relique and is upon both accounts declared to be worthy of the very SAME ADORATION that Christ himself is And I hope that is a proper Worship in the strictest sense For thus St. Thomas argues Aquin. 3. Par. Qu. 25. Art. 4. If we speak of the very Cross upon which Christ was crucified it is to be worshipped with Divine Worship both as it represents Christ and as it touch'd the Members of Christ and was sprinkled with his Blood. And for this Cause we both speak to the Cross and pray to it as if it were Christ Crucified upon it Where note says Cajetane That our speaking to the Cross is here produced as an Effect of the same Adoration with which Christ is adored This I think is plain enough Cajet in Th. Ibid. and may serve to shew both with what sincerity you deny that properly speaking you do worship Reliques or that 't is not the Cross but Christ Crucified upon it to whom you speak in these Addresses and which I have before vindicated against your Cavils 123. Now this is the more to be consider'd in that here you cannot say as you do in the Case of Images that the Figure and the Proto-type are in a manner united together and that therefore the Image in its representative Nature is in some sort very Christ The reason of this Worship being only a former Relation to our Saviour Aquin. loc cit because says Aquinas it heretofore touch'd his Sacred Members or was sprinkled with his Blood. Upon which single account Cardinal Capisucchi doubts not to affirm Paragr Appendix p. 690. That the Wood of the Cross is so sanctified and consecrated by Christ that every the least Particle of the Cross divided from the whole and from the other parts do's remain Consecrated and Sanctified and therefore that every the least piece of the Cross is to be adored with the very same supreme Divine Adoration that Christ himself is So truly have you told us that you do not allow Relicks a Worship or Adoration taken in its strictest sense Reply p. 42. 124. And what I have now said of the Cross will in the next place no less hold for the Nails Lance and other Instruments of his Passion Vid. Card. Capisuch l. c. Upon which account as we have seen that you address to the Cross so you also do to the Lance Hail O triumphant Iron Happy Spear Wound us with the Love of him that was pierced by thee It is possible you may find out this too in the Corpus Poëtarum and by the same Figure that the Cross signifies at once both the Material Cross and our Saviour that hung upon it may make the Spear here signify at once both S. Longinus's Spear and the Body of Christ that was wounded with it And that you may see how much it will be worth the while to have such an Ecclesiastical Trope invented I will add one Instance more of another Relique that has an Address made to it altogether as much wanting it as either of the foregoing The Relique I mean is the Veronica or Cloth which our Saviour Christ wiped his Face and left the Impression of his Visage upon it And to this you thus pray Hail Holy Face of our Redeemer printed upon a Cloth white as Snow purge us from all Spot of Vice and join us to the Company of the Blessed Bring us to our Country O happy Figure there to see the pure Face of Christ This is I suppose a plain Instance enough what kind of Honour you pay to Reliques And that this Cloth might never want Votaries to worship it your Pope John XXII has vouchsafed no less than Ten thousand Days Indulgence to every repetition of this Prayer I might add other Instances of this kind of Superstition But I go on 125. Thirdly To another Instance of your giving religious Worship to Reliques and that is your allow'd practice of swearing by them Now that to swear by another is to give that thing by which you swear the VVorship due to God only both the nature of an Oath which implies a calling of God to witness and therebly acknowledges him to be the Inspector of the Heart and the just Avenger of the falshood of it and the Authority of Holy Scripture plainly declare Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God says Moses Deut. vi 13. and shalt serve him only and swear by his Name How shall I be favourable unto thee says God by the Prophet Jeremy Chap. v. 9. Thy Children have forsaken me and sworn by those that are no Gods. But now the Catechism of your late Synod of Trent allows you to swear by the Cross and Reliques of your Saints In 2. praec decal p. 267. and there is nothing more common among you than so to do When the Emperor comes to Rome to take the Imperial Diadem at his Holiness's Hands he thus swears I King of the Romans SWEAR By the Father Son and Holy Ghost and by the VVood of the Cross and by these Reliques of the Saints c. In which we find the Holy Trinity join'd in the same rank with the Wood of the Cross and with the Reliques of the Saints 126. Nor am I here concern'd in those Pretences that are sometimes brought to excuse this viz. that you hereby intend no more than to swear by God seeing it is plain that you do it at once both by God and Them. And again That you do not believe that thereby any strength is added to the Oath which it would not otherwise have for allowing this yet still you do swear by them and if there be neither any reason for it nor benefit in it you are never the less culpable but the more inexcusably so upon this account But indeed you do expect a benefit by this swearing and suppose that the Saints do hereby become Sureties with God to you to see the Oath fulfill'd and to punish the Perjury if it be not And so you not only swear by the Reliques as well as by God but ascribe all the reason and design of an Oath to the Saints in common with God. I will illustrate this in one of your own Instances which will clear this Matter to us It happen'd that one of your Saintesses S. Guria was married to a Goth a Souldier in the Roman Army that was sent to deliver the City Edessa from the Hunns The Siege being raised and the Army recall'd the Souldier required his Wife to go home with him Her Mother could not bear this but being forced to comply she brings the Souldier and her Daughter to an Altar under which were buried the Bodies of three Saints And being there she thus spake to him I will not give thee my Daughter unless laying thy hand upon this Tomb in which are contain'd the Reliques of the Holy Martyrs of Christ thou shalt swear that thou wilt treat