so well known that I need not quote any Authours And that this is the practice of the Roman Church jointly and coherently with their Worship of Images is manifest to all the world and that therefore it is as arrant Idolatry as Paganism it self and consequently real Idolatry by the third Conclusion of the first Chapter And lastly it is to be noted that the Council of Trent naming the debitus Honor of Images and not excepting these in known practice then among them must of all reason be conceived to mean these very Circumstances as Paganicall as they are of the Worshipping of them 7. And the rather because they do pretend to rectify some Miscarriages in the business of Images as any unlawfull or dishonest Gain by them all lascivious Dresses of the Images all Drunkenness and disorderly Riot at their Feasts and the like Which methinks is done with as grave caution against Idolatry as if they had decreed that all the Whores in Rome should forbear to go in so garish apparell that they should be sure to wear clean linen to be favourable to poor younger Brothers in the price of a night's Lodging that they keep themselves wholsome and clean from the Pox and the like which were not the putting down but the establishing of whores and Whoredome in the Papacy And so are these Cautions touching Images Exceptio firmat regulam in non exceptis Wherefore these Circumstances of Idolatry being not named by the Tridentine Fathers in their Exception they are thereby ratify'd Which yet are so like the old Pagan Idolatry that Ludovicus Vives one of their own Church could not abstain from professing non â—osse aliquid discrimen ostendi nisi quòd nomina tanium titulos mutaverint That onely the Names and Objects were changed not the Modes of the ancient Idolatry of the Heathen 8. If the Council of Trent would have really and in good earnest rectify'd their Church in the point of Images they should have followed the Example of that skilfull and famous Physician Dr. Butler they should have imiâ—ated his Prescript touching the safe eating of a Pear viz. That we should first pare it very carefully and then be sure to cut out or scoup out all the Coar of it and after that fill the hollow with Salt and when this is done cast it forthwith into the Kennell This is the safest way of dealing with those things that have any intrinsick Poison or Danger in them See those most wholesome and judicious Homilies of our Church of England against the Perill of Idolatry 9. And thus much shall serve for the setting out the Idolatry of the Church of Rome so far as it seems to be allow'd by the Church it self But for those more gross Extravagancies which though they have connived at yet they would be loath to own upon publick Authority I will neither weary my self nor my Reader by meddling with them Such as the making the Images to sweat their Eyes to move the making them to smile or lowre and look sad to feel heavy or light or the like Which does necessarily tend to the engaging of the people to believe and have assiance in the very Images themselves as those Consecrations also imply which I cited out of Châ—mnitâ—us and which that Rhyme seems to acknowledge which they say to that Face of Christ which they call the Veronica Which Rhyme runs thus Nos perduc ad patriam felix ô Figura Ad videndam Faciem quae est Christi pura Nos ab omni macula purga Vitiorum Et tandem consortio junge Beatorum And with such like blinde Devotion do they likewise speak to the Cross O Crux spes unica Hoc Passionis tempore Aâ—ge piis Iustitiam Reâ—sque dona Veniam This must sound very wildly and extravagantly to any sensible ear And yet the invoking any Saint before his Image for Aid and Succour the Image bearing the name and representation of the Saint with Eyes and Hands lift up to it is as arrant talking with a sensless Stock or a Stone as this and as gross a piece of Idolatry though approved of by the Authority of the Roman Church But I intended to break off before CHAP. IX His Answer to the first Paragraph That the image of Christ says he may be worshipped â—ith â—â—e â—orship of â—atria though expresâ—y contrary to the Doctrine of the second Council of Nice is the commonly supposed Opinion of St. Thomas and St. â—onaventure But there is a great difference betwixt is to be worsâ—ipped and may be worshipped And besides it is hard to say what the meaning of these two Doctors is they wind about so and enter into such nice distinctions c. The Reply AS to the being contrary to the Council of Nice I Reply That I have already shown that it is most consonant thereto both from Photius and the Council it self And therefore Thomas and Bonaventure being such very ancient Schoolmen about 400 years ago and therefore much nearer to the Nicene Council it is most likely they followed the air of that Council and of Pope Adrians letter to Irene and Constantine approved by that Council And it is incredible that Pope Adrians letter and the sense of the Council concerning so great a point and â—f so high importance should be unknown to the Church of Rome especially the more learned of them for above four hundered years together Touching May be worshipped and Is to be worshipped I demand whether any undue VVorship may be given to the Image of Christ. If therefore that VVorship which may be given is due and fit it is plain it is to be given or ought to be given which questionless was the Opinion of both Thomas and Bonaventure And lastly As to the winding into nice distinctions what distinctions are here but onely of Terminativè and Relativè or Transitive which are intelligible enough viz That Latria cannot be given to the Image of Christ Terminativè but onely Relativè or Transitivè It must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pass to the Prototype as the Council of Nice speaks That is to say We must do Divine honour to the Image of Christ that Christ ultimately may be honoured thereby which is plainly to commit gross Idolatry to the glory and honour of Christ. And therefore my Adversary durst name none of these nice distinctions not because they are above the capacity of the Vulgar but because even a Vulgar capacity can easily observe the folly and futility of them His Answer to the second Paragraph First he says That my alledging of Azorius is a proofless Accusation or Calumny against them I suppose because â— cite not the very place and words Secondly Touching the Doctrine zâ—rius witnesses of he says it is so far from being the constant Opinion of their Theologers that it is now generally rejected by them unless limited by that qualifying distinction of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he says I have forgot or purposely
Religious Ceremony and to signity Religious Honour and VVorship And we may as well or rather better call the Saints Gods and pretend onely a Civil sense by it as bow to the Image of a Saint set up and Consecrated for the purpose and pretend we intend onely a Civil VVorship by it For this was the Universal Mode of acknowledging any person a God by erecting an Image and Honouring him in it by the above said Ceremony as it was the Universal Phrase of calling that a God which was so honoured And what is said of bowing the body to the consecrate Image of an Invisible Power or Spirit the same is also to be said of lighting Candels before the said Image it is an Universally well known Ceremony of Religion amongst the Nations not a Civil Ceremony whereby they acknowledged that to be a God whom they so Honoured And lastly for burning of Incense the Learned are agreed that it is a Sacrifice and therefore an act of Latria according to my Adversaries own Concession And the Primitive Christians were so sensible thereof that they would rather die than fling a few grains of Incenfe into the fire in honour of the Emperour they looking upon it as a Sacrificing to him And truly it is a very noble kind of Sacrifice as may be seen by the Altar of Incense next the Holy of Holies and highly significant of Honour that is of sending up prayers and Devotionally spending all the Powers of our Souls and bodies as an acceptable service and of a sweet smelling savour to him we thus Worship Which is the highest Worship imaginable so far is it from being determinable to a Civil Worship I mean the Type thereof from either custom or the nature of the thing it self It s Preparatories being thus swept away let us consider the Answer it self In which he lays to my charge what himself was just now so manifestly guilty of namely of mingling things of an Heterogeneous nature he making the burning of Incense to a Saint which is a Sacrifice a Civil Worship as well as the bowing of the body And he blames me for making Sacrificeing to an Image and bowing to an Image both of them acts of Idolatry Whenas notwithstanding I do not say that simply bowing towards an Image suppose to take up a pin or a glove from off the the flour betwixt the Image and us is Idolatry but a Religious Incurvation to the Image is Idolatry So that my Adversary is disingenuous in not representing my Aâ—sertion such as it is which addes Religious to that bowing or Incurvation to an Image which I pronounce to be Idolatry And all Incurvation is such that is made to a consecrated Image as to an Object of this Worship I but he has two proofs to evince that even Religious Incurvation to an Image is no Idolatry For the name of Jesus is Religiously bowed to and the Jews were commanded to bow toward the Ark of the Covenant over which were the Cherubims of Image-work And therefore they were commanded to bow to Images by God himself which therefore can be no Idolatry To the first I answer That a name or voice is no Image or Similitude accordingly as it is written Deut. 4. 12. ye saw no Similitude onely ye heard a voice And besides it is ridiculous to infer that we bow to the name of Jesus when we hear it named because we bow at the naming of it as to infer that those of your Church say their Ave-Maries to the Ave-Mary-bell because they say them at the tinkling of it neither the Ave-Mary-bell nor the Name or word Jesus are the Objects of our Devotion but onely the Occasions of it Besides they whose backs are turned off the Priests or Reader when he names the name of Jesus what a ridiculous bowing were that in them if they bowed to the name sounding behind them Therefore these are poor and weak shifts to make a show for the worshipping 〈◊〉 Images from an Example where there is neither any Image nor any bowing to that which they would fain fancy to be one To the second I Answer That be it so that there is a command to bow toward the Ark of the Covenant where Images are and consequentially towards Images and that this Incurvation is Religious yet the command to bow toward these Images is onely ex accidenti And mark the cunning of my Adversary here again my words are or make any Religious Obeisance or Incurvation to an Image in any wise as to an Object of this Worship which last words he craftily leaves out Which are of â—ssential importance to this act of Idolatry But God was so far from commanding the Jews to bow towards the Cherubims as to an Object of their Worship that he barred them from the very sight of them and suffered them not so much as to be an object of their eyes Which was a plain inhibition from bowing to them as an Object of their Devotion or any way of worshipping them It would be a very unjust imputation of any rash tongue touching suppose some chast Amazon that she was familiarly saluted by such a Knight at such a time when she did not so much as lift up the Beaver of her Helmet all the time they conversed together which therefore was a certain bar against any such audacious attempt And the Case is the same in this foul charge that God commanded the Jews to Worship the Cherubims over the Mercy sear and bow to them as an object when as he carefully hid them with a vail from their eyes that they might not be worshipped Besides how infinitely inconsistent is it with the Truth and Sanctity of the Divine Majesty to give so strict a Law against worshipping of Images and then at the same time to command the two Cherubims to be worshipped and yet to take away the lives of thirty Thousand men for worshipping that golden Cherub or golden Calf which Aaron had set up Which being in their view and they bowing before became the object of their Worship But the Cherubims on the Ark of the Covenant were onely a Ciâ—cumstance of their Worship as so much but were industriously hid from being any Object thereof And God alone who spake from betwixt the Cherubims was the onely object of their Worship And the Cherubims and other Holy things there were onely Holy figures and Hierogly phicks of mysterious and profound Truths which here it is not at all necessary to explain And now lastly touching his last shift concerning the nature of this Worship of Images and Saints which insinuates that though there be a middle Worship betwixt Divine and Civil the Catholick Church he means the Roman does not require that it should be called Religious besides that it is contrary to the common stream of Catholicks as I noted before and that he himself does imply that middle Worship to be Religious I add further what are we the better for not calling it Religious
parts of the Species that which bears the outward show of Bread or Wine that from this Division there is a parting of the whole divided into so many entire Bodies of Christ the Body of Christ being always at the same time equalâ— to it self it follows that a part of the Division is equal to the whole against that common Notion in Euclide That the Whole is bigger then the Part. And lastly in Logick it is a Maxime That the Parts agree indeed with the Whole but disagree one with another But in the abovesaid Division of the Host or Sacrament the Parts do so well agree that they are entirely the very same individual thing And whereas any Division whether Logical or Physical is the Division of some one into many this is but the Division of one into one and it self like him that for brevity â—ake divided his Text into one Part. To all which you may add that unless we will admit of two Sosia's and two Amphitruo's in that sense that the mirth is made with it in Plautus his Comedy neither the Bread nor the Wine can be transubstantiated into the intire Body of Christ. For this implies that the same thing is and is not at the same time For that individual thing that câ—n be and is to be made of any thing is not Now the individual Body of Christ is to be made of the Wafer consecrated for it is turned into his individual Body But his individual Body was before this Consecration â—herefore it was and it was not at the same time Which is against that fundamentaâ— Principle in Logick and Metaphysicks That both parts of a Contradiction cannot betrue or That the same thing cannot both be and not be at once Thus fully and intirely contradictious and repugnant to all Sense and Reason to all indubitable Principles of all Art and Science is this Figment of Transubstantiation and therefore most certainly false Read the ten first Conclusions of the brief Discourse of the true Grounds of Faith added to the Divine Dialogues 7. And from Scripture it has not the least support All is Hoc est corpus meum When Christ held the Bread in his hand and after put part into his own mouth as well as distributed it to â— his Disciples in doing whereof he swallow'd his whole Body down his throat at once according to the Doctrine of this Council or at least might have done so if he would And so all the Body of Christ Flesh Bones Mouth Teeth Hair Head Heels Thighs Arms Shoulders Belly Back and all went through his Mouth into his Stomach and thus all were in his Stomach though all his Body intirely his Stomach excepted was still without it Which let any one judge whether it be more likely then that this saying of Christ This is my Rody is to be understood figuratively the using the Verb substantive in this sense being not unusual in Scripture as in I am the Vine The seven lean Kine are the seven years of Famine and the like and more particularly since our Saviour speaking elsewhere of eating his flesh and drinking his bloud says plainly Ioh. 6. 63. that the words he sp ke they were spirit and they were truth that is to say a spiritual or aenigmatical truth not carnally and literally to be understood And for the trusting of the judgement of the Roman Church herein that makes it self so sacrosanct and infallible the Pride Worldliness Policy and multifarious Impostures of that Church so often and so shamelesly repeated and practised must needs make their Authority seem nothing in a Point that is so much for their own Interest especially set against the undeniable Principles of common Sense and Reason and of all the Arts and Sciences God has illuminated the Mind of man withall Consider the twelfth Conclusion of the abovenamed Treatise together with the otherten before cited Wherefore any one that is not a meer Bigott may be as assured that Transubstantiation is a meer Figment or enormous Falsehood as of any thing else in the whole world 8. From whence it will unavoidablâ— follow and themselves cannot deny it that they are most gross and palpable Idolaters and consequently most barbarous Murtâ—â—rers in killing the innocent Servants of God for not subâ—itting to the same Idolatries with themselves Costerus the Iesuiâ—e speaks expresly to this Point and consonâ—ntly I think to the Suppositions of the Council viz. That if their Church be mistaken in the Doctrine of Tâ—ansubstâ—ntiation they ipso facto stand guilty of such a piece of Idolatry as never was before seen or known of in the world For the errours of those saith he were more toâ—rable who wâ—rship some golden or siâ—ver Statue or some Image of any other Materials for their God as the Heathen worshipped their Gods or arâ—d Cloth hung upon the top of a Spear as is reported of the Laplanders or some live Animal as of old the Aegyptians did then of these that â—orship a bit of Breâ—d as hitherto the Christians have done all over the wâ—râ— for so many hundred years if the Doctrine of ransubstantiation be not true What can be a more full and express acknoâ—ledgement of the gross Idolatry of the Church of Rome then this if Transubstantiation prove an Errour Then which notwithstanding there is nothing in the world more certain to all the Faculties of a man as is manifest out of what has been here said And therefore the Romanists must be gross Idolaters from the second third fourth seventh and ninth Conclusions of the first Chapter and from the fourth fifth eighth ninth twenty fiâ—st twenty-second and twenty fifth of the second Chapter All these Conclusions will give evidence against them that they are very notorious Idolaters 9. And therefore this being so high and so palpable a strain of Idolatry in them touching the Eucharist or the eating the Body and drinking the Bloud of Christ wherein Christ is offered by the Priest as an Oblation and the People feed upon him as in a Feast upon a Sacrifice which is not done without Divine Adoration done to the Host according to the precept of their Church This does hugely confirm our sense of the eating of things offered unto Idols in the Epistles to the Churches in Pergamus and in Thyatira this worshipping of the Host being so expresly acknowledged by the Pope and his Clergy and in that high sense of Cultus Latriae which is due to God alone And therefore it is very choicely and judiciously perstringed by the Spirit of Prophecy above any other Modes of their Idolatry it being such a gross and confessed Specimen thereof and such as there is no Evasion for or Excuse Hoc teneas vultus muianiem Protea nodo CHAP. III. His Answer to the first Paragraph It had been ingenuous in the Doctor whilest he states Catholick â—octrine to speak Catholick language The Council of Trent even as quoted by himself mentions not the â—ost but onely the
which he indeavours to disprove First from the Jews bowing towards the Ark of the Covenant over which were the Cherubims of Image work which says he could not be done without bowing before Images Secondly from Christians bowing at the name of Iesus Tuirdly and lastly he adds That the VVorship done to their Saints and Images is not by the Catholick Church commanded to be called Religious VVorship which he applies to the proof of my seventh Conclusion This is the main of what he brings against this seventh Conclusion For it were tedious to take notice of what things are so little pertinent to the purpose but onely brought in for a blind to the people And I have neither leasure nor any list to meddle with such things In which notwithstanding I acknowledge my Adversary an Egregious Artist for the imposing on poor Souls to use his own Phrase The Reply As to the first of his Preparatories that tells us Catholicks usually distinguish two sorts of Worship I wonder then that he has so soon forgot to be a Catholick himself as to assert there are three from that Instance of Abrahams bowing to God to Angels and to Men by a different Application of the heart viz. to be Divine Worship in respect of God an inferiour kind of Worship in respect of Angels and a Civil Worship as referred to men Wherefore says he he that would speak distinctly to the Catholick Tenet must distinguish these several modes of Worship one from another or else shew cause why he ranks them all under one and the same species of Religious Worship else he will not Cope with his Adversary like a Scholar Namely Unless contrary to the current of Catholicks he make three kind of Worships instead of two or take not heed of making all three one kind of Worship that is Religious which is impossible for any one to do that is not a meer dotard So perplextly and confoundedly does he speak of his sorts of Worship by reason of the tenderness and unsoundness of the cause he undertakes But if he would make any sense of the two sorts of Worship usually distinguished by the Catholicks he must either understand that general bipartition of Worship into Religious and Civil Or else that bipartition of Religious Worship into Latria and Dulia which later may again be subdivided into Dulia major or minor Major that which is given to the blessed Virgin and is particularly called Hyperdulia Minor that to the rest of the Saints and their Images But this he durst not speak out explicitly that he might not be found to allow Religious Incurvation to Images which is so manifestly forbidden in the second Commandment as is intimated in this seventh Conclusion Now to his second Preparatory That neither Sacrifice it self nor Dedication of Temples and Altars which he says are Acts of Latria excludes a secundary Remembrance or titular Honour of the Saints I say as it is little to the present Conclusion so it is in it self plainly false For it is expresly said Thou jhalt have no other Gods besides me And God himself knows and God be thanked we all know that it impossible there should be any Gods besides Him and that therefore we can have none but Him in any other sense than in doing some actions in honour to that which is not God which is proper to be done to God alone And therefore to make any Thing or Person to Communicate with God in these actions of honour is to have other Gods besides Him as much as it is possible to have any other Nor will it excuse the fact that this honour is but secundarily intended to the Saints or what ever else is thus worshipped besides God For besides that the direction of our intention will not change the nature of the proper Notes of an external Latria these can be no other than secondary Deities which are forbidden for as much as there can be no other but these besides him to be forbid and therefore no other than a secundary Honour or inferiour kind of Religious Worship can be possibly intended to them by those that institute it or do it to them they retaining as the Iews did the supreme God still for their God and therefore even that honour is also forbidden in that it is forbidden that we should have any Gods besides Jehovah himself And besides can be that is a jealous God endure that any other should any ways partake of that honour that is proper to Him even of Latria which these Acts are acknowledged to be by my Adversary whose insensibility therefore I stand amazed at in this point For he flatly affirms this to be warrantable Religion viz. That this Temple and this Altar be erected and dedicated to God and St. Francis That this or that Sacrifice be offered to God and St. Francis To God primarily as the supreme God to St. Francis secundarily or as to a Saint not as to the supreme God But does not Temples Altars and Sacrifices make a secundary or inferiour Deity as much as any Thing or Person can be made a Deity by them that hold one supreme God which was the case of the Jews And therefore thus having or making a secundary Deity is palpable Idolatry To the third Preparatory I Answer first That it is hard to conceive that we may choose whether we will call these acts of inferiour respect Religious or no without any offence to his Catholick Divinity when as the Catholicks as he calls them distinguishing two sorts of Worship it is necessary to make such bipartitions of them as I have hinted if they will have them run by twos which will empty these acts of inferiour respect as he Termes them to be Religious and himself plainly intimates they are so toward the end of his Answer to this seventh Conclusion For he says But if nothing will serve my turn but Religious and Divine Worship must be all one then we utterly deny that we are in any wise concerned in his Objection for we give no such Religious Worship to the Saints themselves much less to their Images that is no such Religious Worship as is Divine and is properly Latria but it implies that an inferiour Religious VVorship you do give nor do I contend for a Latria but Religious VVorship in general Secondly I deny that burning Incense lighting up Candles bowing our bodies to Saints and their Images are acts indifferent determinable as our intention shall be to either a Divine or Civil VVorship as Abrahams incurvation of his body to God to Angels to Men For bowing the body is a vulgar Ceremony of Civility known up and down in the VVorld to be so and does not become a Religious Ceremony till it be applied to an Object of Religious VVorship or in such circumstances that it is understood to be so but the bowing the body to the consecrated Image of some invisible Power or Spirit is as notoriously all over the VVorld known to be a
Charity And so the Prayer to St. Brigitt calls her dulcis ductrix and says tuo ductu salutari duc ad vitae bravia By your safe guidance bring us to the reward of everlasting life Which can by no ways be reduced to an Ora pro nobis which may be a further Reply to his second and last generall Answer Vpon the seventh Paragraph Upon this Paragraph or the Hymn to St. Câ— tharine in it I need say no more than I have already said in my next Paragraph concerning it which my Reader may consideraâ—ly read over and then observe with himself not onely touching this present Invocation but also the former how fully that of the Council of Trent ad Sanctorum orationes opem auxiliumque confugere agrees with their forms of Invocation to Saints which is not onely to pray for them but to give them further ayds and assistences according to the proper privileges that they are supposed by their merits to have obtained and some so great that they belong onely to God whence the grosness of the Idolatry is further argued and a further Reply made to his second and last general Answers But for the intitling of the Saints to a power of assisting correspondent to some Action or condition of life of theirs here I have observed in several other forms of Invocation in their Hortulus Animae printed at Dilinga cum facultate Superiorum As to St. Thomas O glorious toucher of the wounds of our Lord Iesus do thou vouchsafe to establish us thy Suppliants in the faith of him whom by touching thou deservedst to acknowledge to he God And to St. Ambrose O most blessed Bishop and greatest Doctor Ambrose who teachest the safe way guide thou the course of my life c. And to St. Austin O glorious light of the Church help us to profit in the precepts of God and in thy Doctrine c. Where it is again observable they make their direct addresses to these Saints and upon account of what it is peculiar for them to help them in and that it is not a mere Ora pro nobis but in the mean time abundantly conformable to the words of the Council of Trent CHAP. V. Forms of Invocation of the blessed Virgin used by the Church of Rome egregiously Idolatrous 1. ANd if they can contain themselves no better in their Devotions towards these lesser Saints to whom their Church-men will allow onely the Worship they call Dulia how wilde and extravagant will they shew themselves in their Addresses to the Virgin Mary the Mother of God to whom they allow the Worship they call Hyperdulia And that is the thing I will now take notice of though not according to the copiousness of the Sâ—bject for it would even fill a Volume But some Instances I will produce and those such as are publick and authentick as I intimated at first In the Rosary of the blessed Virgin she is saluted thus Reparatrix Salvatrix desperanâ—is Animae Irroratrix largitrix spiruualis Gratiae Quod requiro quod suspiro mea sana Vulnera Et da menti te poscenti Gratiarum munera â—t sim câ—stus modestus dulcis fortis sobrius â—â—us rectu circumspectus simultatis nescius Eruditus munitus Divinis eloquiis Constans gravis suavis benignus amabilis â—orde prudens ore studens veritatem dicere Malum nolens Deum volens pio semper opere A very excellent Prayer if it had been directed to a due Object But such things are asked as are in the power of none but of Iesus Christ himself as he is God to give 2. For the Virgin Mary is here made no less then a Saviour and giver of all spiritual Graces as she is also a giver of eternal Life in what follows in Prose Peccatorum consolatrix infirmorum curatrix errantium revâ—catrix justorum confirmatrix desolatorum spes auxiliatrix atque mea promptissima adjutrix tibi Domina gloriosa commendo â—odie quotidie Animam meam ut me in custodiam tuam commendatum ab omnibus malis fraudibus Diaboli custodias atque in â—ora mortis constanter mihi assistas ac Animam ad aeterna gaudia perducas Here is the commending of the Soul of the Devotionist into the Protection of the Virgin that he may be kept from all Evil and from the Frauds of the Devil and that she would assist at the hour of death to convey his Soul to the eternal Joys of Heaven 3. Like that at the end of the Rosary Cor meum illumina fulgens Stella Maris Et ab hostis machina semper tuearis O gloriosa Virgo Maria mater Regis aeterni Libera nos ab omni malo a poenis Iâ—ferni Which is a Petition for Illumination of heart for Security from the Devil and from eternal Death which is onely the Privilege of the Son of God the eternal Wisdom of the Father to grant who is said also Apoc. 1. 18. to have the Keys of Hell and of Death 4. But the thing which is very observable and which I mainly drive at is this That the Roman Church toward the latter end before the Reformation broke out had run so mad after the Patronage of the Virgin that they had almost forgot the Son of God and spent all their Devotions on her whom they do at least equalize to Christ and so really make her as well as some love to call her the Daughter of God in as high a sense as Christ is his Son as will farther appear in the process of our Quotations As in that Prayer to the blessed Virgin that follows in Chemnitius Te mater illuminationis cordis mei te nutrix salutâ—â—meae mâ—ntis te obsecrant quantum possunt cuncta praecordia mea Exaudi Domina adesto propitia adjuvâ— potentissima ut mundentur sordes mentis meae ut illuminentâ—r teâ—ebrae meae O gloriosa Domina Porta vitae Ianuâ— salutis Via reconciliationis Aditus recuperationis obsecro te per salvatricem tuam foecunditatem fac ut peccatorum meorum venia vivendi gratia concedatur usque in finem hic servus tuus sub tua protectione custodiatur Which Petition and Compellations saving what belongs to the Sex are most proper and natural to be used towards Christ. But the Virgin is here made our Saviour and Mediatour in the feminine gender 5. As she is again most expresly in that Prayer to her in her Feast of Visitation Veni praecelsa Domina Maria tu nos visita Aegras mentes illumina Per sacrae vitae munera Veni Salvatrix sâ—culi Sordes aufer piaculi In visitando populum Poenae tollas periculum Veni Regina gentium Dele flammas reatuum Dele quodcunque devium Da vitam innocentium In which Invocation the Virgin Mary is plainly called the Saviour of the World and pray'd unto for spiritual Illumination of the Soul and for the purgation thereof from the filth both of Sin and
Guilt whereby she is plainly equallized to the Son of God and made as it were a She-Christ or Daughter of God To this sense also are those Prayers put up to her in her Feast of the Conception and of the Annunciation But it were infinite to produce all Read that Prayer in 〈◊〉 sung to her by the Council of Constance It is a perfect â—mitation of the ancient Prayer of the Church to the Holy Ghost CHAP. V. Vpon the first Paragraph IN that Prayer to the blessed Virgin in this Paragraph are such Compellations as if they were in the masculine gender were onely proper for God and Christ and such things are asked as are in their power onely to give which is a further Reply to his second general Answer Vpon the second Paragraph And the very same may be said of the Invocation in this second Paragraph out of the same Rosary of the Virgin which though my Adversary seems desirous to signifie his slighting of yet he dare not deny but that it passes current with them And why may I not produce what forms of Invocation I please which are allow'd amongst them and are made use of in the devotions of them that are of the Church of Rome For this does plainly prove the Idolatry that Chuch is lapsed into But if some few flowers out of the Hortulus Animae may be more gratefull to him he shall find what will amount to as much as is in the above said Rosary For in a Recommendation to the blessed Virgin we read thus I commend unto thee blessed Virgin my whole Body and Soul and my whole life the five senses of my Body all my actions and my death who art with thy Son Christ blessed for ever and ever What can be said more to Christ or God himself This is surely more than an Ora pro nobis Pray for us For in a Recommendation immediately going before the form is Precor te I pray thee that thou wouldst keep me from sins from scandals from all the Confusion of humane life from unclean thoughts from all perils of Soul and Body And some few leaves before in the Canticum ad Virginem it is said Dignare dulcis Maria nunc semper nos sine delicto custodire O sweet Mary vouchsafe to keep us now and for ever without sin As if they had a mind to turn the Te Deum into a Te Deam and indeed in this Canticle they have indeavoured it as near as they can But this in it verbatim Answers to Vouchsafe to keep us this day without sin in the Te Deum I will close all with that Rhyme in their Oratio ad beatam Mariam Esto custos cordis mei Signa me timore Dei Confer vitae Sanctitatem Et da morum honestatem Da peccata me vitare Et quod justum est amare O Dulcedo Virginâ—lis Nunquam fuit nec est talis Can any one be the keeper of ones heart bâ—t God that knows the hearâ— This therefore is such a sweet strain of Devotion as never was heard till the lapse of the Church into gross Idolatry And yet all this and a great deal more is in that Hortulus Animae which questionless is a most delicious Paradise with those of that Church and has a sufficient stamp of Authority upon it Which I speak in reference to his third general Answer Nor have I gathered any examples of Invocation but such as the Author I have them out of does expresly profess to have been confirmed by publick Authority and to have been in publick use See Chemnitius his third part of the Examination of the Council of Trent pag. 135. I do not profess to have all their Rituals and Pontificals and Rosaries by me but what I have by me and under my eye are so like what Chemnitius has produced that I think it the greatest folly and stupidity in the World to misbelieve his Quotations Vpon the third Paragraph As for Example in the Invocation in this Paragraph Cor meum illumina fulgens stella Maris why should I at least doubt of that form when I have before mine eyes in Hortulus Animae Esto custos cordis mei Signa me timore Dei Out of both which in the mean time there may be a further Reply to his second general Answer or an Inâ—stance of one of those Generals in my general Reply to that Answer Vpon the fourth Paragraph That I take notice that these Invocations imply that the Virgin Mary is the daughter of God is in reference to my Exposition of the Epistle to the Church of Thyatira which the Reader if his Genius lead him to such things may please to peruse But in the mean time they implying so plainly that the Virgin is the daughter of God in such a kind of sense as Christ is his Son it plainly appears from hence that the Invocation is not a mere Ora pro nobis or the Praâ—ing for such things as are not greater then is in the power of any Creature to give which therefore again is a further Reply to the second and last general Answers Vpon the fifth Paragraph Besides that she is again in this Invocation made the daughter of God in that high sense and that the same Arguments that prove â—er Titles bigger imply the boons she can bestow to be greater then what is competible to a mere Creature and so it respects the second general Answer of my Adversary It is plain also from veni and visita that it is impossible to be understood of a mere Ora pro nobis contrary to my Adversaries last Answer And lastly it is to be observed in reference to his third general Answer that this song in her Feast of Visitation must be in the number of those forms quae publicè in Ecclâ—sus leguntâ—r magnis â—oatibus proclamantur Chemnitius speaks And the like is to be said of her Feast of Conception and Annunciation in Reply to the said third general Answer As also of that Prayer sung to her at the Council of Constance in imitation of Veni Creator Spiritus as that in Hortulus Animae is of Te Deum Laudamus And why should I doubt of that when I see this before mine eyes But instead of Vâ—ni Creator Spiritus which is the usual Prayer to the Holy Ghost it is here Veni mater Gratiae Fons misericordiae Miseris Remedium Veni lux Ecclesiae Triâ—tibus laetitiae Nunc infunde radium c. And now let any one judge whether these are the words of suppliants onely saying Ora pro nobis For whereas it is said Veni lux Ecclesiae Nunc infunde radium O come thou light of the Church Now infuse thy rayes This is both a calling her to them not a bidding her pray for them in Heaven and also the styling her the light of the Church and upon that account Praying her to illuminate them it is plain they suppose her from self to shine forth