that we sacrifice to any of the Saints but to the God of the Saints only though we erect Altars to God in remembrance of the Saints St. Isidore oft dilates himself in the Praises and Worship of holy Mary and shews that the Catholick Saint-Servitude derogates not from that Worship which is due to God only (d) Ildefons l. Virginit Mar. c. 12. Venio ad Te sola Virgo Mater Dei Procido coram Te humilior coram Te Rogo Te ut obtineas deleri facta peccati Mei ut jubeas mundari me ab iniquitate operis Mei ut facias me diligere gloriam Virtutis tuae ut reveles mihi multitudinem Dulcedinis Filii tui ut mihi des loqui defendere Fidei sinceritatem Filii tui Concedas etiam mihi adhaerere Deo Tibi Illi sicut factori meo Tibi sicut Genitrici factoris Mei c. I approach to Thee O only Virgin Mother of God I prostrate my self before Thee I humble my self before Thee I beseech Thee obtain the cancelling of all my sinful Works command me to be cleansed from the Iniquity of my Crimes make me covet the Glory of thy Virtues reveal unto me the Plenty of the sweetness of thy Son Grant that I may profess and defend the true Faith of thy Son and that I may adhere to God and Thee To Him as my Creator to Thee as to the Mother of my Creator c. And St. Ildephons prostrating himself before the holy Mother of God conjures her by whatever is Sacred and Mysterious in the Conception of the eternal Word to obtain of Him the Remission of his Sins to command his delivery from all Iniquity to render him emulous of her own transcendent Vertues and to give Him a relish of the delicious Treasures of the Love of JESVS XCI The Opposers of our Catholick Saint-Servitude as taught and used by Christians of all Ages and Nations of the Apostolical Church regarding more the rind and Criticism of Words than the Spirit and Truth of Christianity discover'd by the Holy Fathers are much offended at the Phrase of Command sometimes us'd in our Addresses to the Mother of JESVS in order to his Divine and Theandrick Operations appertaining to Mans Redemption and Sanctification by Grace as in this passage of St. Ildefons Thence inferring our manifest Idolatry in Worshipping and Invocating Holy MARY as the chief and absolute Soveraign over Souls and Author of Grace and Holiness Calvin l. 3. Instit c. 20. n. 22. Answer p. 25. Specul p. 17. XCII But as the erecting of Temples and Consecrating Altars therein under the Patronage and Protection of Holy Mary the Mother of JESVS and the Ordaining Priests to offer Sacrifice there upon Her Festivals or the Imposing her Sacred Name in Baptismal Regeneration or making Holy Vows of Evangelical Perfection in a Religious Society establish'd in Memory of some Excellent Mystery of her Life c. cannot be reputed Idolatry because none of these Acts are design'd immediately properly and absolutely to Holy Mary but to God only the Supream Lord of all Creatures though by Appropriation performed in Remembrance of Her or of some Mystery relating to Christ or of some signal Favour obtain'd of Christ by her more powerful Intercession and Protection as by a super-eminent Saint a more glorious Image of the Divine Perfections and most endear'd Favourite in the Court of Heaven gratefully piously and duely acknowleg'd by those our external Acts So neither can those sensible Marks of that great Confidence Catholicks conceive of the power of the holy Mother of JESVS within his Spiritual Empire in Requesting Her to bestow Temporal or Spiritual Gifts or even to command us to be cleansed from sin which cannot be done but by the power of JESVS only in the known sense of the holy Church he esteem'd an Invasion of Gods Imperial Power or a Giving to Holy Mary that Religious Worship which is proper to JESVS the Son of the eternal God who alone is the absolute Creator and Giver of Life Light Grace and of all Good Things Eph. 2.8 Jac. 1.17 And the Soveraign Lord of All by Essence and indispensably in whole and in part Levit. 19.4 Ps 23.1 Insomuch that although God covenanting with his Church to assist her Governours Eminential or Representative in Teaching all Truth to co-operate with her Ministers of Sacraments in Sanctifying well-dispos'd Believers and to give Life everlasting to Faithful Laborours in his Vineyard with proportion to their Merits in Christ by Virtue of his Fidelity whereby his promise and performance still run parallel Matt. 28.20 Jo. 20.23 Scot. 4. d. 1. q. 5. n. 12. 2 Tim. 4.8 Trid. Sess 6. c. ult Yet in Right of Gods Essential Supremacy over all Creatures and Independency on all no Creature of whatever Spiritual magnitude can claim any Gift of his Mercy or power over his Will upon any strict Obligation of Justice Alens p. 1. q. 39. m. 1. D. Thom. q. 21. a. 1. D. Bon. 4. d. 46. a. 2. q. 1. Scot. q. 1. n. 4. 11. Smif tom 1. disp 4. q. 5. n. 45. But as St. Aug. 1. Conf. 4. says he gives what 's due though Debter to none because as St. Anselm remarks Prosolog c. 10. God is Just not giving as due but doing what becomes his Infinite Goodness upon his promise passed in his Gospel of Truth and Grace under the Seals of his most tender Love to Believers XCIII Whence 't is manifest according to the Doctrine and Spirit of the Catholick Church First that Faith Remission of sins and sanctifying Grace are not the principal proper and Physical Gifts of any however glorious Creature Secondly that God is not rigorously subject to any power beneath himself as to the dispensing his Gifts and Graces to us Thirdly That therefore whatever the Forms of our Prayers are their design is only to desire Gods gracious and glorified Servants to pray for us and according to the amplitude of their participated super-natural Dignity and the acceptableness of their Prayers according to the Measure of that Dignity covenanted for in the Gifts of Grace earnestly and effectually to obtain of God those Gifts for us purely by their Mediation of Intercession with God according to the known Decree of this Sixth General Council under Pope Agatho c. 7. Vnusquisque Christianus solo Deo adorato invocet Sanctos ut pro se intercedere apud Divinam Majestatem dignentur Having given Divine Worship to God only let every Christian pray to the Saints that they would vouchsafe to interceed to the Divine Majesty for them Syn. Constant Gen. 6. c. 7. And according to the practice of the Fathers of the Fourth General Council under Pope Leo the Great act 11. Flavianus post mortem Vivit Martyr pro nobis oret Flavian though dead lives Let the Martyr pray for us Syn. Gen. Chalced. act 11. XCIV Wherefore although according to the true Spirit of the Gospel of JESVS Catholicks
p. 4. tr 1. d. 3. n. 5. And this because both Natures do inseparably consubsist in one Divine Person For thus JESVS as Man so con-subsisting is not a pure Creature but such is Holy Mary even under the most Super-eminent Priviledges of the Mother of God in their whole Latitude that is as consider'd Metaphysically one with JESVS by a transcendent Unity of Indifferency of their specifical Natures even as to the Consubstantiality of their Flesh and Spirit or Physically by the stupendious Reciprocation of the Cor-relatives of the Son and Mother of God or Theologically by the annexed Interests each have in other of Holiness Grace and Glory and their thence transcending Flames of Charity towards Sinners Sect. V. Four kinds of Arguments used against the Contemplations and the Case open'd XVI THis Reflection premised and without study of Party and Passion calmly apprehended it would not be needful to plead at the Tribunal of the Worshippers of JESVS for any or all the Priviledges of Nature Grace and Glory in the Contemplations attributed to his Sacred Mother or to make evident and justifie to this cool Age the ancient Practices of Zealous Christians allow'd by Church-Authority in their Doxologies Timologies Veneration and Mediation of Prayer address'd to Holy Mary Howbeit to clear the Case and to remove all Mistakes of those who love and seek Peace in Gods House I shall briefly pursue this Apology and shew manifestly the Innocency Equity and Antiquity of the Doctrine and Practice offer'd to this Kingdom in the plain allow'd and English Contemplations on the Life and Glory of the Holy Mother of JESUS XVII There be four Accusations by several urged against the Right Holy Mary hath to the Doctrine and Devotions therein asserted First That the Praises addressed to Holy Mary are either Rapsodies of Wit or strains of an irregular Devotion towards HER they all being proper to the Eternal Son of God only or else that they are Sacrilegious Applications of Psalmes Hymnes and Canticks by Divine Inspiration and the practice of the Church used in the Praises of the Creator and here against all Rule applied to the Glory of a Creature Secondly That the several Titles of Honour confer'd on Holy Mary are ambitiously extravagant and blasphemous equalling HER in Power Majesty and Holiness to God the Author of all Creatures and the only Hope Mediator and Sanctifier of Sinners Thirdly That the Worship given to the Mother of God usurps manifestly upon Gods Jurisdiction over the Fealty Homage and Servitude of all Creatures not communicable to Any purely such of what Rank Stile and Perfection soever Fourthly That all Prayer made to the Holy Virgin now in Heaven however circumstanced is either useless as offer'd to one who hears them not or Impious as begging of a Creature those Blessings which are wholly in the Gift of the Creator XVIII Now to clear these Mists of Ignorance or vain Philosophy observe First That according to the Doctrine and Practice of Catholick Schools there is a signal Difference between Praise Honour Worship and Prayer That Praise consists precisely in a vocal Expression of the Excellencies of that Person we purpose to magnifie whether sincere or fallacious Honour is a sensible Declaration of an inward real Esteem of a Person for some Excellencies we remark in Him so that we may praise and honour Persons though of an inferiour Rank if endow'd with laudable-and honourable Perfections But Worship not only supposeth these Perfections we honour but moreover implieth an inward Submission of the mind to the Person by reason of them and this testified by some apt sensible Token or Sign naturally or through custom acknowledging the Dignity of that Person so preferrable by reason of those apprehended Perfections Whence 't is manifest that Worship includes three several acts First an opinion or judgement of the due value of those inherent surpassing Excellencies Secondly A Love of friendship or sincere preference of the Person qualify'd with those Excellencies And thirdly A sensible mark of our Internal submission outwardly attesting that love and preferrence Prayer yet further addeth a sincere Desire of some favour we want and hope to obtain by means of the Person so preferrable and petition'd by Us whither by an immediate Gift or by a mediate Intercession made to the absolute Giver so that Prayer besides our esteem of Excellency an inward submission and cordial confidence and desire of relief includes a Practical declaration of this Hope and Desire at least of a Supplication for the relief of the humble and earnest Petitioner XIX Observe Secondly That that Excellency which is the Motive of our Praise Honour Worship and Prayer is either infinite and independent as God only is and the Worship thereon grounded according to the Vse of all Antiquity is called Latria or Divine Servitude or Worship Because it hath an infinite Perfection for its Motive and Measure and God by Essence or by consubsistence for its terminative object on which it resteth Aug. libr. 20. contr Faustum c. 21. l. 10. Civ c. 1. Bed. in 4. Luc. So that this word Latria by custom of all Nations doth now properly signify only that Religious Worship which is due to God in acknowledgment of his absolute supream and uncontroulable Dominion over all Creatures in right of his Divine Majesty Wisdom Goodness and Power Deut. 6.13 Matt. 3.10 Conc. Nicen. 2. act 3.4 6. Trid. Sess 13. cap. 5. Basil in 1. Isaiae Aug. l. 15. cont Faust c. 9. And therefore the word Worship expressed by its self without a restraint or limitation by some particle annex'd according to this use implieth Divine only as its principal Analogate as Philosophers spaek Thus we must Worship and serve God only and for this reason This Worship given to any thing which is not God is properly Idolatry Act. 15.16 1 Cor. 10.7 Or else this Excellency is limited and dependent as every thing is that is not God and the Worship hereof according to the same use and practice of Antiquity is called Dulia or Saint-Servitude or Worship because it hath for its Motive and Rule a Participated or Created and therefore a limited only and dependent Perfection or Gift of Holiness Grace and Glory and a Pure Creature for its immediate or penultimate End or Terminative Object And from this Motive and Object the Nature of the Saint-worship must be concluded Gen. 18.2 19.1 Numb 22.31 Jos 5.15 Aug. Bed. cit Magist 3. d. 9. D. Thom. 2. 2. q. 103. Suar. t. 1. Relig. tr 3. l. 3. c. 6. Sect. VI. The Worship properly due to the Holy Mother of JESUS truly stated XX. THe super-natural participated Excellencies of Grace being not equally communicated to the Glorious Saints 1 Cor. 15.41 Saint-Servitude or Worship is necessarily of a higher or lower Rank according to the different degrees of participating those Excellencies as is manifest in that Civil Worship which is given to Princes and their inferiour Officers to
the Holy Mother of JESVS they signify a super-eminent Saint-Servitude towards Her Esteem of her super-natural State and Confidence in her Protection and Mediation Bed. Serm. de S. Mar. Inter Varia German Patr. Constant Theoria Rer. Eccles These Rules and Limits being ever observ'd in our Catholick Addresses to the Mother of JESVS what hazard can there be of dis-respect to God by usurping the Rights of his Sacred Throne and Dignity What of scandal to the Godly by equalling a Creature to the Creator Such however is the Innocent Catholick Doctrine and Practice mis-represented through Love of Party and heat of Passion mis-guided by private false Lights Sect. VIII That the Worship given to the Holy Mother of JESUS is Religious and Laudable XXVI THe Opposers of the Contemplations cannot conceive How a Worship can be Religious and not begin from a Divine Motive tend to and end in God God only So that if Religious Worship be given by us to Holy Mary they conclude our Worship to be Sacrilegious because it invades the Rights of Gods Throne and makes her a DEITY To disperse this Mist of Misrepresentation 't is confess'd That Religion though not a Theological but Moral Virtue and a branch of Justice yet hath it for its chief Act and End To give due Worship to God for his own infinite Glory whereby he is our Supream and absolute Lord our first Cause and last End. The exact and adequate Object of Religious Worship in chief is a Collection of all those sensible Signs which are apt most effectually to testify to the World our sincere Esteem Love and Submission to God in Right of those his Infinite Excellencies and therefore those Divine Perfections are the original Motive and Measure of the whole Collection of those Signs Now because those Divine Perfections so conspicuous in God do as manifestly argue in us an unavoidable dependence on God as to our whole Being Motion and Rest therefore do they create in us an indispensable obligation of using those Signs under fit Circumstances wherefore they are not only the ultimate but also the Immediate Motive and Measure of this our Religious Worship and the End of this Religious Worship is God for his own infinite Excellency by those outward Signs blessed by us who in himself is blessed for evermore XXVII Within this Collection of sensible Signs of our Religious Worship the Offering of Sacrifice is one so proper so due to God only because it manifestly testifies His and His only absolute power over Life and Death That This in all States of the Church hath been specially reserv'd as the Holy Test of Mans dependence on and Duty to God his Creator and last End as both Laws and all Fathers and Divines do affirm Malach. 1.11 1 Cor. 11.26 Aug. l. 20. contr Faust c. 21. l. 10. Civ c. 4. Nic. 2. act 6. Trid. Sess 22. c. 1. D. Th. 2. 2 q. 83. Bell. l. 1. Miss c. 6. Less l. 2. Just c. 38. n. 19. Her. p. 4. tr 3. d. 8. n. 3. Therefore do the Fathers condemn the Arabian Collyridians of a gross Idolatry in offering their Cake-Sacrifices to the Mother of JESUS Epiph. haeres 78. 79. Baron ad Ann. 373. n. 30. Sander haeres 92. Gualter haer saec 4. c. 32. which no ways reflects on those Lights and Perfumes Catholicks do sometimes burn to the honour of the holy Virgin since by none look'd on as Sacrifices or as Protestations of a Supream Dominion but only as outward Symbols of their own lively Faith and of the ascent of a clean Soul to God by Prayer For this Royal Virgin needs not our Vain and Counterfeit Honours Bern. Epist 174. being dignify'd with real Excellencies of the first Magnitude next beneath the Majesty and Attributes of the Son of the Eternal God. Greg. in 1. Reg. 1. Anselm l. Excell Virg. c. 4. Suar. de Myster Christ d. 18. Sect. 4. Her. 4. tr 1. d. 4. n. 15. XXVIII But as to other sensible Actions by Us us'd in our Worship of God as Tests of our inward Value of Gods Omnipotency and Protestation of our own absolute dependence though they may be indifferently us'd by us as well in our Civil as in our Sacred acts of Veneration we owe to our Betters in either States Yet being assum'd and directed by the Virtue of Religion and having the Majesty of God for their Motive and the acknowledgement of his Omnipotency and of our dependence for their Ends They are properly and perfectly Acts of Religious Worship Yea these same Acts by reason of the aforesaid Indifferency to signify any Civil or Sacred Worship even as us'd in our Saint-Servitude only to express our acknowledgement of their Holy and Glorious State may proceed from the Motive End and Inclination of Religion whereby whether Immediately or only Mediately we do ever ultimately make profession of Gods Glory to which all knees must bow So that all these indifferent Actions even when refer'd to the Saints may be call'd Religious without giving the Saints any Divine Homage or otherwise invading the Just Limits of Gods Sanctuary XXIX For clearing this Truth and for removing the Ismaelites Rock of Scandal Observe That the participated Excellencies of Holiness Grace and Glory of the Saints may be consider'd two ways First absolutely and as those super-natural Gifts are habitually inherent in them and being diffus'd through their Souls do intrinsically imbellish Them and render them really Holy Just and Glorious Creatures Secondly Relatively or as those Excellencies do confer on these blessed Spirits a special super-natural and transfigurating Report to God whose accomplish'd Images they now are by consummated Holiness Grace and Glory and by Divine Vision Fruition and Tention made One Spirit with God intentionally in that blessed State. 2 Cor. 3.18 1 Jo. 3.2 2 Petr. 1.4 Aug. tr 2. in 1 Jo. Dion l. Div. Nom. c. 4. Bon. p. 4. Centiloq Sect. 1. For thus Divine Grace as the Seed of God 1 Jo. 3.9 transforms glorified Creatures into a Divine Being by participation of Authentick Marks and Covenants of Gods intimate Presence within Them of indelible Badges of his Friendship to Them and of their powerful Acceptableness to Him in his Sacred Courts and Councils for the promoting and propagating the Communion of the Saints and consequently by These Excellencies Seals the Saints with a super-naturalizing Character of Gods Image dignifies them with the Tale of his Temple and Sanctuary and adorns them with the stupendious Prerogatives of his Friends Favourites and adoptive Children XXX Now although the Super-natural Perfections of the Saints positively or absolutely consider'd as their glorious Endowments do challenge from us Mortals in this our State of Exile some Servitude or Worship and this far above Civil Respect by the Rules of Moral Politicks due to the Grandees of this World because they confer a degree of Excellency transcending the whole Sphere of Moral Vertue Civil power and Imperial Majesty Jo.
by the glorifi'd Spirits Albeit it concerns not us as Christians who walk by Faith that the Thing is when duely propos'd as a Divine Credible to know how that thing can be as how God is one in Three Persons how the Word is made Flesh how a corporal Fire can burn a Spirit Because Faith having no Intrinsick Motive assents only to the Verity reveal'd but leaves all Disputes concerning the Manner How to Philosophy as a Curiosity not at all appertaining to Religion which only teaches us to learn our Divine Credibles from the un-disputed Heads Eminential or Representative of the Churches Hierarchy The Manner therefore How these Secret Petitions of Sinners may be imparted to the glorious Saints according to School-Divines possibly may be either by an Intuitive Vision of our Desires however secret and distant either in themselves or in the Superiour Light of Gods Essence which is an Eminential Myrror of all Truths For this knowledge is an Illustrious Branch of the Theological Science of the Saints Conc. Senon Decret 13. fid Bern. l. 5. Consid c. 1. Aug. l. 13. Conf. c. 25. Dion l. div Nom. c. 7. Scot. 3. d. 14. q. 2. n. 20. Or by an Abstractive knowledge thereof by Means of some created Images to that end ordain'd by the Almighty for the supplying the activity of absent or too distant Objects relating to the State of each Saint according to the Amplitude of their Merits and Glory which the Fathers and Doctors allow to the Angels and Adam in their first Creation Aug. l. 4. Gen. ad lit c. 23. 29. 11. Civ c. 7. 29. Scot. 3. d. 3. q. 9. n. 10. D. Bon. d. 4. a. 3. q. 1. 2. D. Th. 22. q. 62. a 1. ad 3. And is therefore much more allowable to Creatures in their State of consummated Happiness LXIII As to the Saints knowledge of our Petitions by the Way of Intuitive Vision two Things are very observable First That we must not confine the Science of the Saints either to an essential dependence on Sense or Fancy or to a prefix'd limit of the Sphere of their Operations since Souls in their State of Separation have their Intellectual Faculties as well as Angels and without question of a far greater Sphere even according to the Course of Nature than any Sense however active and comprehensive because in their Operations they are exempt from material Organs and Images and therefore the Sphere of their Activity as well as the method and manner of their intentional Productions are not distinctly comprehended by us nor consequently may they be prescrib'd and limited by us any more than the Fecundity of the Earth the Influences of the Stars or the Agility of the Intelligences Thus to demonstrate That there is no manifest Impossibility for the Saints in their full Glory to know Intuitively in their own Natural Existence the Prayers of their Clients here below at any distance made unto Them. LXIV But then secondly The Essence of God is absolutely an infinite Myrror Eminentially and distinctly comprehending and representing all possible past present and future even conditional Beings Simple and Complex however Contingent Gods will having once decreed their Futurition absolutely or with reference to some condition not as to Gods will which is effectual as it passeth on the Object but as to the Thing willed which depends on some condition not actuated by that Will and which therefore remains purely in a State of possibility Thus Gods Essence is the Superiour and Eminential Light of the Saints able to supply in a more elevated and comprehensive manner the Motive Activity and Vigour of all created Objects as to the Intuitive Vision of each and of this the Royal Prophet speaks Ps 35.10 That in This Infinite Light the Blessed shall see all the inferiour Lights The Majesty of Gods Face serving as a Sun not only to discover and embellish the glorious Beauties of thâ— heavenly Paradice but also to represent in its self after a most perfect Manner whatever may con-naturally appertain to the Science of the Saints Apoc. 21.23 consequently the most individual Conditions of every one of their Devotes Greg. l. 12. Moral c. 14. l. 2. Dial. c. 35. l. 4. c. 33. as our Blessed Lord expresly declares in that Jubilee he affirms to be amongst the Angels upon the Repentance of every Sinner Luc. 15.10 and that every glorious Soul shall then be equal to Angels Matt. 22.30 Luc. 20.36 and that they All shall retain the self-same Zeal for the Advancement of Gods Glory by the Conversion of Sinners as when yet their fellow Mortals Matt. 22.39 1 Cor. 13.8 1 Jo. 4.20 That blessed Multitude of glorified Creatures being ever sollicitous for the Salvation of our Souls however secure they be of their own Glory as St. Cypr. speaks Serm. 4. de Mortal and ought superlatively to be appli'd to the Mother of beautiful Love. LXV Next as to the Abstractive knowledge which the Saints possibly may have of the secret Petitions of their Clients on Earth the Case seems cleer above all Exception Since Fathers and Doctors seem agreed That the Angels were therewith endow'd as to their Evening Science of Creatures in their Natural State Aug. l. 4. Gen. ad Litt. c. 29. l. 11. Civ c. 7. 29. Scot. 2. d. 3. q. 9. n. 16. and Adam in his original Innocence Eccl. 17.6 as to the Essence of God and the manifold Natures Properties and Operations of Creatures and super-eminently must be the special Priviledge of the ever Immaculate Mother of JESVS if allow'd to any PVRE CREATVRE D. Thom. p. 3. q. 27. a. 1. D. Bon. 3. d. 3. q. 1. a. 1. q. 3. Scot. q. 1. n. 10. Smis tom 1. d. 6. n. 299. Faelix c. 9. de Vision diff 2. n. 5. LXVI But as to the Manner of stating the practice of this Abstractive knowledge and especially How the Saints do know abstractively the Prayers of their Devotes in their private Closets or in the more private Cabinets of their Souls and this however transcendent the glorious Station of the Saint is there is no manifest Repugnance That this knowledge may be acquir'd either by Divine Revelation or by the Ministry of Angels to that end appointed And both ways either by an Intellectual Speaking and Hearing whereby God and his Angels communicate actual knowledge of their Prayers as the blessed Spirits do now communicate theirs to each other at an indefinite Distance in their State of Glory much amplifi'd by the aid of super-natural permanent Lights Or else by transfus'd Images distinctly representing their Requests at whatever distance absent Or by some other means possible to God and as it pleaseth Him though neither comprehended by us LXVII For as I said It matters not How the Saints know their Clients Petitions The Church being not at all concern'd In stating that Question or in prying into the Quiddities or Modalities of Reveal'd Truths but humbly acquiescing